requite
Americanverb (used with object)
-
requites,
present (3rd person singular)
-
requited,
past participle, past
-
requiting
present participle
-
to make repayment or return for (service, benefits, etc.).
- Synonyms:
- reimburse, remunerate, pay, compensate, recompense, reward, repay
-
to make retaliation for (a wrong, injury, etc.); avenge.
- Synonyms:
- revenge
- Antonyms:
- forgive
-
to make return to (a person, group, etc.) for service, benefits, etc.
-
to retaliate on (a person, group, etc.) for a wrong, injury, etc.
-
to give or do in return.
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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requitesimple
-
requitessimple
-
have requitedperfect
-
has requitedperfect
-
am requitingprogressive
-
are requitingprogressive
-
is requitingprogressive
-
have been requitingperfect progressive
-
has been requitingperfect progressive
Past
-
requitedsimple
-
had requitedperfect
-
was requitingprogressive
-
were requitingprogressive
-
had been requitingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of requite
Explanation
You can requite a friend’s kindness by doing your friend a favor or by being kind in return. Requite means "to repay or return." To requite something is to return it. However, saying that you want to requite a gift means that you want to give something in return for it — not that you want to return the gift to the store for some quick cash. Requite is often used in the context of love; if you requite someone’s love, you love that person back. Requite can also be used in a negative sense. Someone who wants to requite an injury wants payback for it.
Vocabulary lists containing requite
The Tragedy of Macbeth
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The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
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Beowulf
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The act doesn’t requite that he sign the letter.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 21, 2019
I think that’s every girl’s dream, that this punk who doesn’t really like us and doesn’t really requite our love, that he’s going to change all the sudden.
From Time ● Jan. 28, 2013
Therefore, in "the world as it is," you must requite evil with lesser evil.
From Salon ● Aug. 18, 2011
Did Mr. Anderson requite Ms. McKinney’s love, as she insists?
From New York Times ● Jul. 14, 2011
The powers of darkness would requite it, too, my mother’s parting curse would call hell’s furies to punish me, along with the scorn of men.
From "The Odyssey" by Homer
His honour loves his lady too well to make her suffer much: little as she requites his love!——
From Clarissa Harlowe; or the history of a young lady — Volume 6 by Samuel Richardson
After the inscription, "John Durer, formerly Minister to his Majesty the Emperor of Germany," the old man had written— "Heaven requites ingratitude."
From The Children's Portion by Robert W. Shoppell
It's the only thing I 've yet met that requites me for coming!
From The Dodd Family Abroad, Vol. II by Charles James Lever
It is true that the popular belief and popular legends which are preserved in post-Biblical writings as well, insisted on a justice which requites “measure for measure.”
From Jewish Theology by Kaufmann Kohler
Sabitri replied, "O virtuous king, we are apt to repose more confidence in the righteous than in ourselves; their kindness amply requites our love and regard."
From The Hindoos as they Are A Description of the Manners, Customs and the Inner Life of Hindoo Society in Bengal by Shib Chunder Bose
But there's a parallel thread of romance... a story of unrequited love that slowly became very requited indeed.
From BBC ● Jun. 1, 2022
In high school, when I experienced crushes on my male classmates, I believed that the only way those feelings could be requited was if I altered my body.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 11, 2022
Landon Donovan will get his first chance to see if his new passion will be requited when he coaches the San Diego Loyal of the second-tier USL Championship.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 3, 2021
But there’s something more that’s driving interest in Bennifer: the storybook nature of long-lost love requited.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 4, 2021
I’m sure I said it would be O.K., although all I remember as I ran down the hill was thinking: Oh, I’m in love, I’m in love, and I think it’s requited!
From "Homesick" by Jean Fritz
Not requiting any encouragement to get out of his seat was Fernandez's fitness coach, who would leap and shout, pointing fingers or waving clenched fists.
From Fox News ● Sep. 7, 2021
And yet, among the human lovers, she is perhaps the most active, from when she betrays her friend to score points with Demetrius, her formerly requiting unrequited crush.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 10, 2020
The beloved proletariat, so requiting during hard times, had, at first opportunity, run off with capitalism's traveling salesman.
From Time Magazine Archive
"I must say that you have the strangest mode of requiting hospitality," said Kate, haughtily.
From The Daltons, Volume I (of II) Or,Three Roads In Life by Charles James Lever
Lincoln's opportunity of requiting him was not yet.
From Abraham Lincoln by Godfrey Rathbone Benson, Baron Charnwood
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
