compensation or reward
revenge or retribution
payment, price, or money
Māori
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The Utu Utu Gwaitu Paiute are among a coalition that wants to pause the planned roundups for two years and ultimately secure land back to set aside a sanctuary for the horses to roam.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2025
Donte Utu, a three-star prospect from Punahou HS, the famed Honolulu power, pledged to the Cardinal on Monday.
From Seattle Times ● May 9, 2024
There, however, he is imprisoned, only to be freed when the young warrior Utu opens a hole to the surface and carries Enkidu back out on a lofting breeze.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 20, 2019
Others like Utu Abe Malae, chairman of the Republican Party in American Samoa, said that he would never support Trump, though he was not ready to commit to Cruz.
From Time ● Apr. 24, 2016
The Sumerian Utu had already become the Semitic Samas, and clothed himself in the attributes of a Semitic Bel.
From The Religions of Ancient Egypt and Babylonia by Sayce, A. H. (Archibald Henry)
It was incumbent therefore upon that redoubtable warrior to obtain utu for the slaughter of his relative.
From A History of the English Church in New Zealand by Purchas, H. T. (Henry Thomas)
What followed was a capital example of the Maori doctrine of utu, or compensation, the cause of so many wars and vendettas.
From The Long White Cloud by Reeves, William Pember
But the obtaining of utu was almost the main object of the heathen Maori.
From A History of the English Church in New Zealand by Purchas, H. T. (Henry Thomas)
Just as we were leaving the hut I had a look at the utu —a fish I had never before seen.
From By Rock and Pool on an Austral Shore, and Other Stories by Becke, Louis
In a few minutes my companion hooked an utu , a sluggish fish, somewhat like a salmon in appearance, with shining silvery scales and a broad flat head.
From By Rock and Pool on an Austral Shore, and Other Stories by Becke, Louis
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.
