Library / English Dictionary

REPAY

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected form: repaid   

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Answer back

Synonyms:

come back; rejoin; repay; retort; return; riposte

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "repay" is one way to...):

answer; reply; respond (react verbally)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s that CLAUSE

Sense 2

Meaning:

Pay back

Example:

Please refund me my money

Synonyms:

give back; refund; repay; return

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Hypernyms (to "repay" is one way to...):

pay (give money, usually in exchange for goods or services)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "repay"):

reimburse (pay back for some expense incurred)

restitute; restore (give or bring back)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody something
Somebody ----s something to somebody

Sentence examples:

They repay the money to them

They repay them the money

Derivation:

repayment (the act of returning money received previously)

repayment (payment of a debt or obligation)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Make repayment for or return something

Synonyms:

repay; requite

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Hypernyms (to "repay" is one way to...):

give (transfer possession of something concrete or abstract to somebody)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "repay"):

pay (make a compensation for)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

repayment (the act of returning money received previously)

repayment (payment of a debt or obligation)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Act or give recompense in recognition of someone's behavior or actions

Synonyms:

pay back; repay; reward

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Hypernyms (to "repay" is one way to...):

act; move (perform an action, or work out or perform (an action))

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Somebody ----s somebody with something

Credits

 Context examples: 

But if I can be the means of restraining the publicity of the business, of limiting the exhibition, of concentrating our folly, I shall be well repaid.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

By her grateful attention to me and mine, she has long since well repaid any little kindness I ever had it in my power to offer her.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Amy smiled and was mollified at once, saying with a maternal air, Women should learn to be agreeable, particularly poor ones, for they have no other way of repaying the kindnesses they receive.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

He was shy, and disposed to abstraction; but the engaging mildness of her countenance, and gentleness of her manners, soon had their effect; and Anne was well repaid the first trouble of exertion.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

“Ill have I had from them, and ill I shall repay them. I am a good friend to my friends, and, by the Virgin! an evil foeman to my foes.”

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

After what has so lately passed, so lately been settled between us—how joyfully, how thankfully on my side!—as to your continuing here as I hoped for many, many weeks longer, how can I tell you that your kindness is not to be accepted—and that the happiness your company has hitherto given us is to be repaid by—But I must not trust myself with words.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

The letter was written in an odd, upright hand and signed “Edward Hyde”: and it signified, briefly enough, that the writer’s benefactor, Dr. Jekyll, whom he had long so unworthily repaid for a thousand generosities, need labour under no alarm for his safety, as he had means of escape on which he placed a sure dependence.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

The visit afforded her many pleasant recollections the next day; and all that she might be supposed to have lost on the side of dignified seclusion, must be amply repaid in the splendour of popularity.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

The kindness, the unceasing kindness of Mrs. Jennings, I had repaid with ungrateful contempt. To the Middletons, to the Palmers, the Steeles, to every common acquaintance even, I had been insolent and unjust; with a heart hardened against their merits, and a temper irritated by their very attention.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

‘Next Monday I have a large sum due to me, and I shall then most certainly repay what you advance, with whatever interest you think it right to charge.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)