avenge

English

Etymology

(deprecated template usage)

From Middle English avengen, borrowed from Old French avengier, from a- (“upon”) + vengier, from Latin vindicō, vindicāre.

Verb

avenge (third-person singular simple present aveng, present participle es, simple past and past participle avenged)

1. (transitive) To take vengeance (for); to exact satisfaction for by punishing the injuring party; to vindicate by inflicting pain or evil on a wrongdoer.

   to avenge the murder of his brother

   • (Can we date this quote by John Milton and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     Avenge, O Lord, thy slaughtered saints, whose bones / Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold.

2. (intransitive, obsolete) To take vengeance.
   • Template:RQ:Authorized Version

     Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the LORD.

3. (transitive, archaic) To treat revengefully; to wreak vengeance on.
   • (Can we date this quote by Bishop Hall and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     thy judgment in avenging thine enemies

Synonyms

• (take vengeance): bewreak, get back at, retaliate, take revenge
• (treat revengefully): spite
• See also Thesaurus:avenge

Usage notes

The object of "avenge" is generally the act of injury or the injured party, never (in modern usage) the injuring party. The injuring party may be specified with "on," as in "to avenge X on his killer," but this is rather more common with "take/get revenge" and "revenge oneself" than with "avenge."

Translations

to take vengeance for

• Arabic: اِنْتَقَمَ (intaqama)
• Armenian: վրեժ լուծել (vrež lucel)
• Aromanian: arãzgan
• Belarusian: по́мсціць impf (pómscicʹ), мсціць impf (mscicʹ)
• Bulgarian: отмъщавам (bg) (otmǎštavam), мъстя́ (bg) impf (mǎstjá)
• Burmese: လက်စားချေ (my) (lakca:hkye), ကလဲ့စားချေ (my) (ka.lai.ca:hkye)
• Catalan: venjar (ca)
• Chechen: please add this translation if you can
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 報仇／报仇 (zh) (bàochóu), 报仇 (zh) (bàochóu), 復仇／复仇 (zh) (fùchóu), 复仇 (zh) (fùchóu)

• Czech: pomstít se, mstít se
• Danish: hævne
• Dutch: wreken (nl), wraak nemen
• Finnish: kostaa (fi)
• French: venger (fr)
• Friulian: svindicâ
• Galician: vingar
• Georgian: შურისძიება (šurisʒieba)
• German: rächen (de), ahnden (de)
• Greek: εκδικούμαι (el) (ekdikoúmai)
• Hindi: बदला लेना (badlā lenā), दण्ड देना (daṇḍ denā)
• Hungarian: megbosszul (hu)
• Icelandic: hefna (is)
• Interlingue:
• Irish: díoltas a imirt ar, éiric a bhaint amach i/de
• Italian: vendicare (it)
• Japanese: 復讐をする (ja) (ふくしゅうをする, fukushū o suru), かたきを討つ (かたきをうつ, kataki o utsu), あだを討つ (あだをうつ, ada o utsu)
• Korean: 복수하다 (ko) (boksuhada)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Lao: ແກ້ແຄ້ນ (lo) (kǣ khǣn)
• Latin: vindicō, ulcīscor, persequor (la), pūniō
• Macedonian: одмаздува impf (odmazduva), одмазди pf (odmazdi)
• Maori: rānaki, ngaki (mi), rangaranga, ngaki mate, whakakaitoa, huki, huki toto, hiku toto
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: hevne

• Occitan: venjar (oc)
• Old Church Slavonic:

  Cyrillic: мьстити impf (mĭstiti)

• Ossetian: please add this translation if you can
• Persian: انتقام گرفتن (fa) (enteqâm gereftan)
• Polish: mścić się impf, zemścić się pf
• Portuguese: vingar (pt)
• Romanian: răzbuna (ro)
• Russian: мсти́ть (ru) impf (mstítʹ), отомсти́ть (ru) pf (otomstítʹ)
• Scottish Gaelic: dìol
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: осветити се pf

  Roman: osvetiti se (sh) pf

• Sicilian: vinnicari (scn), minnicari (scn)
• Slovak: mstiť sa impf, pomstiť sa pf
• Slovene: maščevati se
• Spanish: vengar (es)
• Swedish: hämnas (sv)
• Thai: แก้แค้น (th) (gɛ̂ɛ-kɛ́ɛn)
• Ukrainian: мсти́ти impf (mstýty)
• Venetian: vendegar, vendicar
• Vietnamese: phục thù (vi), trả thù (vi)
• Walloon: vindjî (wa), rivindjî (wa), raveur (wa), rawè (wa)
• Welsh: dial am

to treat revengefully

• Latin: vindico, ulciscor, persequor (la), punio
• Polish: zemścić się
• Portuguese: vingar (pt)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Romanian: răzbuna (ro)
• Scottish Gaelic: dìol

Noun

avenge (plural avenges)

1. (archaic) An act of vengeance; a revenge.

Anagrams

• Geneva