1
: requital
2
: a return on an investment equal to the original capital outlay
also
: the period of time elapsed before an investment is recouped
Examples of payback in a Sentence
They beat our team last year, so we've got to beat them this year as payback.
we are hoping to get payback for the humiliating defeat we suffered at the hands of our rivals during our last matchup
Recent Examples on the Web
New data shows a growing number of disgruntled employees now prefer to exact workplace payback sooner than later.
—
Bruce Crumley, Boston Herald, 7 Dec. 2025
One clock, representing the infrastructure build-out, is spinning quickly as innovation shifts the frontier of hardware and AI models every six to 12 months, compressing the payback window.
—Ravi Kumar S, MSNBC Newsweek, 2 Dec. 2025
Maybe there’s some cosmic payback in the fact that life here in the 19th and early 20the centuries, particularly in the west, could be brutal.
—Stephanie Zacharek, Time, 21 Nov. 2025
In taking on the role o f a filmmaker in his latest movie, Stellan Skarsgård sniffed a chance at payback.
—Thomas Page, CNN Money, 11 Nov. 2025
See All Example Sentences for payback
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Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
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Bruce Crumley, Boston Herald, 7 Dec. 2025
One clock, representing the infrastructure build-out, is spinning quickly as innovation shifts the frontier of hardware and AI models every six to 12 months, compressing the payback window.
—Ravi Kumar S, MSNBC Newsweek, 2 Dec. 2025
Maybe there’s some cosmic payback in the fact that life here in the 19th and early 20the centuries, particularly in the west, could be brutal.
—Stephanie Zacharek, Time, 21 Nov. 2025
In taking on the role o f a filmmaker in his latest movie, Stellan Skarsgård sniffed a chance at payback.
—Thomas Page, CNN Money, 11 Nov. 2025
See All Example Sentences for payback
Cite this Entry
“Payback.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/payback. Accessed 19 Dec. 2025.
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