requite — English Dictionary

requite
Pronunciations (3)
  • /ɹɪˈkwaɪt/
    Pronunciation notes
    • Received-Pronunciation
  • /ɹəˈkwaɪt/
    Pronunciation notes
    • General-American
  • ɹɪˈkwaɪt

Verb

  1. To repay (a debt owed); specifically, to recompense or reward someone for (a favour, a service rendered, etc.)

    Usage
    • Transitive
    Examples
    More examples (2)

    But remember / (For that's my buſineſſe to you) that you three / From Millaine did ſupplant good Proſpero, / Expos'd vnto the Sea (vvhich hath requit it) / Him, and his innocent childe: for vvhich foule deed, / The Povvres, delaying (not forgetting) haue / Incens'd the Seas, and Shores; yea, all the Creatures / Againſt your peace: […]

    He that requiteth a good turne, muſt imploy ſomevvhat of his ovvne, as he doth vvho repayeth the monie he ovveth: but he layeth out nothing vvho ſatisfieth himſelfe, no more then he giueth, vvho giueth to himſelfe. […] He therefore that requiteth a good turne pleaſureth him againe, from vvhom hee hath receiued any thing.

    [T]hey requited Chriſts paſſion, and died for him vvho ſuffered for them.

    Children are disobedient, and they sting / Their father's hearts to madness and despair / Requiting years of care with contumely.

    More examples (2)

    Good cryptographists are rare indeed; and thus their services, although seldom required, are necessarily well requited.

    "It was the act of an Englishman—a fellow Englishman," said the little man simply. "I hope that one day I shall have the opportunity of requiting it … I probably shall," he added rather sadly. "It is one of the pleasant if quite onerous duties of a man of my position to requite the services he receives—usually on a disproportionately extravagant scale."

  2. To repay (someone) a debt owed; specifically, to recompense or reward (someone) for a favour, a service rendered, etc.

    Usage
    • Transitive
    Examples

    Sir I am ſo poore to requite you, you muſt looke for nothing but thankes of me, […]

    This place, to vvhich Ariſtotle ovv'd his birth, he aftervvards requited vvith extraordinary gratitude.

    More examples (6)

    […] I vvas as vvell able to requite him for a large Preſent as he vvas to make it, and had reſolv'd it before I knevv he had ſent any Thing to the Ship; ſo that this exchanging of Preſents vvas but a kind of generous Barter or Commerce: […]

    [W]hat here vve call our life is ſuch, / So little to be loved, and thou ſo much, / That I ſhould ill requite thee to conſtrain / Thy unbound ſpirit into bonds again.

    Well, Edie, we have enough to pay our debts, let folks say what they will, and requiting you is one of the foremost—let me press this sum upon you.

    [R]egard this Earth / Made multitudinous with thy slaves, whom thou / Requitest for knee-worship, prayer, and praise, / And toil, and hecatombs of broken hearts, / With fear and self-contempt and barren hope.

    He was standing at the window, […] when in bounces little red-faced, bustling Dr. Toole—the joke and the chuckle with which he had just requited the fat old barmaid still ringing in the passage—[…]

    [W]e beseech Allah Almighty to make great thy reward eternal and requite thee thy beneficence.

  3. To respond to or reciprocate (feelings, especially affection or love which has been shown).

    Usage
    • Transitive
    Examples

    My loue is requyted ſo louyngly / That in euery thyng that may delyght my mynde, / My wyt can not wyſhe it ſo well as I fynde

    More examples (1)

    To love thee boundless, was my bold resolve, / Because my courage fail'd to equal thee. / I then began with thousand tender arts / And pure fraternal love, thy heart to storm. / But cold, proud soul, requitedst thou this love.

  4. To do or give a thing in return for (something).

    Usage
    • Transitive
  5. To retaliate or seek revenge for (an insult, a wrong, etc.).; to avenge.

    Usage
    • Transitive
    Examples

    Let me this craue, ſith firſt I vvas defyde, / That firſt I may that vvrong to him requite: / And if I hap to fayle, you ſhall recure my right.

    More examples (1)

    And when Joſephs brethren ſaw that their father was dead, they ſaid, Joseph will peraduenture hate vs, and will certainely requite vs all the euill which we did vnto him.

    […] I will requite, / Although mine enemy be great and strong, / His cruel threat—do thou defend the young!

  6. To retaliate or seek revenge against (someone) for an insult, a wrong, etc.; also (reflexive, rare), to seek revenge for (oneself).

    Usage
    • Transitive
    Examples
    More examples (2)

    My Gratious Lord, not ſo much for the iniury hée offred me héere in your preſence, as to delight you with ſome mirth, hath Fauſtus worthily requited this iniurious knight, which being all I deſire, I am content to releaſe him of his hornes: […]

    [B]y kindling a fire in each Image, they made ſuch a ſmoke that the Indians vvounded & ſlevv many Tartars, vvho could not ſee to requite them [i.e., themselves] through the ſmoke: […]

    And for a world bestowed, or a friend lost, / He can feel hate, fear, shame; not gratitude: / He but requites me for his own misdeed.

    More examples (1)

    [T]he doubly felon / […] / Requite himself for his most just expulsion / By blackening publicly his sovereign's consort, / And be resolved by his upright compeers.

  7. To greet (someone) in return.

    Usage
    • Obsolete
    • Transitive
    Examples

    They him ſaluted ſtanding far afore; / VVho vvell them greeting, humbly did requight, / And asked, to vvhat end they clomb that tedious hight.

    Lovvly they him ſaluted in meeke vviſe, / But he through pride and fatnes gan deſpiſe / Their meaneſſe; ſcarce vouchſafte them to requite.

  8. To make up for (something); to compensate.

    Usage
    • Obsolete
    • Transitive
  9. To respond to (a question, a statement, etc.).

    Usage
    • Obsolete
    • Transitive
    Examples

    Jeſus […] requited their queſtion vvith an other, as though a man ſhoulde dryue out one nayle vvith an other.

    More examples (1)

    He bowed slightly to K.'s uncle, who appeared very flattered to make this new acquaintance, yet, being by nature incapable of expressing obligation, requited the Clerk of the Court's words with a burst of embarrassed but raucous laughter.

  10. To take the place of (someone or something); to replace.

    Usage
    • Obsolete
    • Transitive
    Examples
    More examples (2)

    [For if] tranſmutation be made from one mans body into another, as if a piece of fleſh be exchanged from the biciptall muſcle of either parties arme, and about them both, an Alphabet circumſcribed; upon a time appointed as ſome conceptions affirme, they may communicate at vvhat diſtance ſoever. For if the one ſhall prick himſelf in A, the other at the ſame time vvill have a ſenſe thereof in the ſame part; […] vvhich is a vvay of intelligence very ſtrange, and vvould requite the Arte of Pythagoras; vvho could read a reverſe in the Moone.

    This Roman Hierarchy ſhall be Politically killed, deveſted of all Povver and Authority: From vvhence vvill naturally flovv Mourning and Famine, grief of heart, vvith ſcarcity and poverty to requite their luxury before.

    Thy Mother vvell deſerves that ſhort delight, / The nauſeous Qualms of ten long Months and Travel to requite.

  11. Of an action, a quality, etc.: to be a reward for (itself).

    Usage
    • Obsolete
    • Reflexive
    • Transitive
    Examples

    'Tis all vve beg thee, to conceal from Sight / Thoſe Acts of Goodneſs, vvhich themſelves requite.

    [T]o have saved you requites itself. We who walk the greenwood do many a wild deed, and the Lady Rowena's deliverance may be received as an atonement.

  12. To recompense, to repay.

    Usage
    • Intransitive
  13. To retaliate, to seek revenge.

    Usage
    • Intransitive
    Examples
    More examples (2)

    […] Chriſt and his holy apoſtles, exhort euery man to pacience and ſufferance, without requiting of an euil dede or making anye defence but vſing further ſufferance, & doyng alſo good for euill, […]

    Becauſe the ſpoiler is come vpon her, euen vpon Babylon, and her mightie men are taken, euery one of their vowes is broken, for the Lord God of recompenſes ſhall ſurely requite.

Noun

  1. Chiefly in the form in requite for or of: synonym of requital (“compensation for damage or loss; return in kind, recompense, repayment, reward”).

Verb

  1. make repayment for or return something

    Synonyms
    Broader terms
Word forms
requitesrequitingrequitedrequitedrequitedrequitestrequitedrequitedstrequitethrequitedrequitedrequitedrequit

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