repay
verb/ɹiˈpeɪ/
Etymology From Old French repaier (“to pay back”), from re- + paiier (“to pay”), from Latin pācāre (“to settle, to make peaceful”), from pāx (“peace”) + -ō (forming verbs). Equivalent to re- + pay. Cognate with repacify and French repayer (“to pay again”).
1
Synonym of pay back in all senses.
- I finally repaid my student loans, just before sending my kids to college.
- I'll repay this wrong asap.
4 more examples
- But drops of Grief can ne’re repay / The debt of Love I owe, […]1707, Isaac Watts, “Godly Sorrow ariſing from the Sufferings of Chriſt”, in Hymns and Spiritual Songs, London: J. Humfreys, page 86:
- On the results of the Kent Coast electrification, which is known to be repaying so far a satisfactory return on the investment in it, a Waterloo-Bournemouth scheme shows reasonable financial promise.1962 April, “Talking of Trains: Short-sighted approach to profits?”, in Modern Railways, page 219:
- I was low as low could go / Could not stand anymore / Oh, I could never, never / Never, never repay you1973, Billy Paul, “Thanks for Saving My Life”, in War of the Gods:
- Returning to the school years later, Diakabana discovered it was a school guard. She wanted to repay him. "He told me to help others when I could, so I launched a scholarship program," says Diakabana, who now lives in Switzerland and is co-founder of The Luminous Agency, which focuses on digital literacy.2025 November 13, Kamala Thiagarajan, “If you're going to be kind to another human, today is the day to do it!”, in NPR:
2
To make worthwhile; to yield a result worth the effort; to pay off.
- The possible importance of excessive androgen secretion and the ingestion of agents such as the fluorenamines may repay further investigation.2013, M. Pavone-MacAluso, Testicular Cancer and Other Tumors of the Genitourinary Tract, page 517:
3
To give in return; requite.
- Derived terms
- nonrepaying, repayability, repayable, repayment, repayor