requite

[ri-kwahyt]

verb (used with object)

requited, requiting 

1. to make repayment or return for (service, benefits, etc.).

   Synonyms: reimburse, remunerate, pay, compensate, recompense, reward, repay

2. to make retaliation for (a wrong, injury, etc.); avenge.

   Synonyms: revenge
   Antonyms: forgive

3. to make return to (a person, group, etc.) for service, benefits, etc.

4. to retaliate on (a person, group, etc.) for a wrong, injury, etc.

5. to give or do in return.

requite

/ rɪˈkwaɪt /

verb

1. (tr) to make return to (a person for a kindness or injury); repay with a similar action

Other Word Forms

• requitement noun
• requitable adjective
• requiter noun
• unrequitable adjective
• unrequiting adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of requite¹

1520–30; re- + obsolete quite, variant of quit ¹

Word History and Origins

Origin of requite¹

C16: _re- + obsolete quite to discharge, repay; see _quit

Example Sentences

“The structure of a not fully requited love was a familiar and even eroticized one for Baldwin,” Boggs writes, “and would come to fuel his art.”

From Los Angeles Times

Luckily for him, in Colwin’s world, the brief torture of falling in love is just prelude to the lifelong joy of finding your love requited.

From Washington Post

His love for the revolution was not always requited.

From New York Times

They show us the way we try to escape an unsatisfying present through speculative fictions about how our suffering will eventually be redeemed through requited love or satisfying work or, failing those, God’s mercy.

From Los Angeles Times

But there's a parallel thread of romance... a story of unrequited love that slowly became very requited indeed.

From BBC