Word of the Day

: December 19, 2024

requite

verb rih-KWYTE

What It Means

To requite is to give or do something in return for something that another person has given or done, or for a benefit or service that has been provided.

// Sam was worried that the feelings she’d expressed on her date were not requited, but was relieved and overjoyed to learn that they were.

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requite in Context

“I had attracted the interest of some boys ... but mostly, I wrote short stories about my crushes. The girls who summered on Nantucket and eschewed carbs? Their crushes were requited.” — Amy Kaufman, The Los Angeles Times, 4 Jan. 2024

Did You Know?

Requite is most familiar in the phrase “unrequited love.” Love that has not been requited is love that has not been returned or paid back in kind. Indeed, the idea of repayment undergirds all the senses of the verb requite, which include the most common sense of “to repay” (usually applied to amorous affection or feeling), “to avenge,” and “to make suitable return to for a benefit or service, or for an injury.” The quite in requite is a now-obsolete English verb meaning “to make full payment of” or “to pay.” (The verb's ultimate root is Latin quietus, meaning “quiet; at rest.”) This quite is also related to the English verb quit, the oldest meanings of which include “to pay up” and “to set free.”