recompense
Americanverb (used with object)
-
recompenses,
present (3rd person singular)
-
recompensed,
past participle, past
-
recompensing
present participle
verb (used without object)
-
recompenses,
present (3rd person singular)
-
recompensed,
past participle, past
-
recompensing
present participle
noun
-
compensation, as for an injury, wrong, etc..
to make recompense for the loss one's carelessness has caused.
- Synonyms:
- satisfaction, indemnification, amends, payment
-
a repayment or requital, as for favors, gifts, etc.
-
a remuneration or reward, as for services, aid, or the like.
verb
-
(tr) to pay or reward for service, work, etc
-
(tr) to compensate for loss, injury, etc
noun
-
compensation for loss, injury, etc
to make recompense
-
reward, remuneration, or repayment
Synonym Usage
See reward.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
-
recompensernoun
-
underrecompenseverb (used with object)
-
recompensableadjective
-
unrecompensableadjective
-
unrecompensedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
recompensesimple
-
recompensessimple
-
have recompensedperfect
-
has recompensedperfect
-
am recompensingprogressive
-
are recompensingprogressive
-
is recompensingprogressive
-
have been recompensingperfect progressive
-
has been recompensingperfect progressive
Past
-
recompensedsimple
-
had recompensedperfect
-
was recompensingprogressive
-
were recompensingprogressive
-
had been recompensingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of recompense
1375–1425; (v.) late Middle English < Middle French recompenser < Late Latin recompēnsāre, equivalent to Latin re- re- + compēnsāre ( see compensate); (noun) late Middle English < Middle French, derivative of recompenser
Explanation
Say you loan a few bucks to a friend who is short on cash, and he wins the lottery. Presumably, he'll be able to recompense you, or pay you back what he owes. If you look closely at recompense, you'll see how similar it is to compensate, which means to make amends for something or to pay. Add the prefix re-, which suggests returning or repeating, and you get the meaning of recompense — paying back or reimbursing financially or otherwise. Recompense is most often used as a verb, but it works as a noun, too. In recompense for throwing peas and screaming, a mother might send a toddler to her room for a time-out.
Vocabulary lists containing recompense
The Tragedy of Macbeth
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A Midsummer Night's Dream
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Oedipus the King
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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:
Because China values its access to America’s capital markets, now is the time to seek recompense for American bondholders.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 26, 2026
And without legal recompense, the only check to this power appears to be other armed men.
From Slate ● Jan. 29, 2026
Grandparents have demanded money as recompense for having spent years caring for a grandson taken in battle.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 5, 2025
"That settlement for Zach allowed him the opportunity to have some kind of recompense but more importantly, to be able to make some memories," said Anna-Louise.
From BBC ● Jul. 1, 2025
Perhaps he sees something meaningful, how this might be a test and a recompense.
From "Native Speaker" by Chang-rae Lee
These works are among the great recompenses that experience offers us.
From The New Yorker ● Sep. 19, 2014
“The Case for Reparations” is deeply focused on economic injuries and recompenses.
From Washington Post
The want of meaning she supplies with words, and the want of spirit she recompenses with malignity.—Johnson.
From Pearls of Thought by Maturin Murray Ballou
"Antonio—I have long known that in his recompenses Alphonso is immoderate; 'tis thine To prove to-day what all who serve the prince Have learn'd, or will."
From Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol 58, No. 357, July 1845 by Various
To my Lord G. H. SIR, I Am near the execution of that purpose for France; though I may have other ends, yet if it do but keep me awake, it recompenses me well.
From Letters to Severall Persons of Honour by John Donne
Kennedy wasn’t extorted off the bench or recompensed for his vacancy.
From Slate ● Jul. 2, 2018
If people knew a radio station, a platform or a device was using a fair system, and that artists were being recompensed for their work directly, they’d go for it over another that didn’t.”
From The Guardian ● Sep. 6, 2015
One need not be a political ideologue, he says, to believe that people have quantifiable value and deserve to be recompensed for it.
From New York Times ● May 5, 2013
The ECJ says long-delayed passengers should be recompensed as generously as those whose flights were cancelled.
From BBC ● Apr. 16, 2010
When the negotiations were concluded, the gods and Skadi had agreed that she would be recompensed for her father’s death in three ways.
From "Norse Mythology" by Neil Gaiman
Still, Treyzon said that does not deter his suit from examining the platform’s value in recompensing class-action members.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 12, 2019
The IRS seized Nelson’s belongings in 1991 to start recompensing the approximate $32m he owed in taxes at the time.
From The Guardian ● Jul. 15, 2015
"What! by recompensing kindness with treachery?" she said, glancing at him mournfully.
From Under False Pretences A Novel by Adeline Sergeant
But such privileges should not be continued longer than is necessary for the purpose of reasonably recompensing the adventurers.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 5, Slice 8 "Chariot" to "Chatelaine" by Various
After all, fortune had favoured him, and Providence, having chastened him, was now amply recompensing him for his early sufferings.
From Settling Day by Nat Gould
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.
