requite
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Middle English: re- + quite (“clear, pay up”)
Pronunciation
Verb
requite (third-person singular simple present requit, present participle ing, simple past and past participle requited)
- To return something (usually something figurative) that has been given; to repay; to recompense
- 1610, The Tempest, by Shakespeare, act 3 scene 3
- 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.
- Edgar Allan Poe (Can we date this quote?)
- 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 […]
- 1925, Franz Kafka, The Trial, Vintage Books (London), pg. 91:
- 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.
- 1994 July 25, Jack Winter, “How I met my wife”, in The New Yorker:
- We left the party together and have been together ever since. I have given her my love, and she has requited it.
- 1610, The Tempest, by Shakespeare, act 3 scene 3
- To retaliate.
Derived terms
Translations
to repay, recompense, reward
|
to retaliate
Noun
requite
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.