requite

English

Alternative forms

• (archaic) requit

Etymology

From Middle English requiten (“to repay”), from Old French requiter.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈkwaɪt/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪt

Verb

requite (third-person singular simple present requites, present participle requiting, simple past and past participle requited)

1. (transitive) To return (usually something figurative) that has been given; to repay; to recompense
   • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii]:

     But, remember—
     For that's my business to you,—that you three
     From Milan did supplant good Prospero;
     Expos'd unto the sea, which hath requit it,
     Him, and his innocent child: for which foul deed
     The powers, delaying, not forgetting, have
     Incens'd the seas and shores, yea, all the creatures,
     Against your peace.

   • 1841, Edgar Allan Poe, A Few Words on Secret Writing

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

   • 1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard:

     He was standing at the window […] when in bounced 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 […]

   • 1937, Willa Muir, Edwin Muir (translators), Franz Kafka, The Trial, Vintage Books (London), published 1983, pg. 91, original published 1925

     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.

Derived terms

• unrequited

Translations

to repay, recompense, reward

• Bulgarian: отплащам се (otplaštam se)
• Dutch: belonen (nl)
• French: rendre la pareille (fr), réciproquer (fr)
• German: belohnen (de), erwidern (de)
• Maori: whakapaepae
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Portuguese: corresponder (pt)
• Russian: вознаграждать (ru) (voznagraždatʹ), отпла́чивать (ru) n (otpláčivatʹ)
• Scottish Gaelic: dìol
• Slovak: oplatiť, opätovať

to retaliate

• Bulgarian: отмъщавам (bg) (otmǎštavam)
• German: vergelten (de)
• Russian: мстить (ru) (mstitʹ)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Scottish Gaelic: dìol
• Slovak: pomstiť (sa)

Noun

requite

1. requital

References

• “requite”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “requite”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• quieter