compensate
verbUK /ˈkɒm.pən.seɪt/ · US /ˈkɑm.pənˌseɪt/
Etymology Borrowed from Latin compēnsātus, perfect passive participle of compensō (“to weight together one thing against another, balance, make good”), -ate (verb-forming suffix) for more.
1
To do (something good) after (something bad) happens.
2
To pay or reward someone in exchange for work done or some other consideration.
- It is hard work, but they will compensate you well for it.
3
Ambitransitive To make up for; to do something in place of something else; to correct, satisfy; to reach an agreement such that the scales are literally or (metaphorically) balanced; to equalize or make even.
- His loud voice cannot compensate for a lack of personality.
- To compensate me for his tree landing on my shed, my neighbor paved my driveway.
2 more examples
- The length of the night and the dews thereof do compensate the heat of the day.1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC:
- , Preface The pleasures of life do not compensate the miseries.
4
To adjust or adapt to a change, often a harm or deprivation.
- I hate that old car because it steers a little to the left and I'm always compensating for that when I drive it.
- To compensate for his broken leg, Gary uses crutches.
- Synonyms
34 terms
guerdon, reimburse, atone, offset, acclimatize, acclimate, accommodate, accustom, adapt, accord, amend, appease, equate, expiate, harmonize, indemnify, level, reconcile, rectify, redeem, redress, remedy, remunerate, requite, resolve, restitute and restitution, square, compensate, compense, dispense, make good, make up, recompense, restore- Derived terms
- compensatable, compensator, decompensate, malcompensate, miscompensate, overcompensate, precompensate, recompensate, undercompensate
- Related terms
- compensation, compensatory, compensable, compensably, recompense