compensate
EnglishEdit
EtymologyEdit
Borrowed from Latin compensatus, past participle of compensare (“to weight together one thing against another, balance, make good, later also shorten, spare”), from com- (“together”) + pensare (“to weight”).
PronunciationEdit
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈkɒm.pən.seɪt/, /ˈkɒm.pɛn.seɪt/
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈkɑm.pənˌseɪt/
(file) - Rhymes: -eɪt
VerbEdit
compensate (third-person singular simple present compensates, present participle compensating, simple past and past participle compensated)
- To do (something good) after (something bad) happens
- 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.
- (transitive, intransitive) 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.
- 1631, [Francis Bacon], “(please specify |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], 3rd edition, London: […] VVilliam Rawley; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], OCLC 1044372886:
- The length of the night and the dews thereof do compensate the heat of the day.
- 1718, Matthew Prior, Solomon on the Vanity of the World, Preface
- The pleasures of life do not compensate the miseries.
- To adjust or adapt to a change, often a harm or deprivation.
- I don't like driving that old car because it always steers a little to the left so I'm forever compensating for that when I drive it. Trust me, it gets annoying real fast.
- To compensate for his broken leg, Gary uses crutches.
SynonymsEdit
- (to do something good): See Thesaurus:compensate
- (to pay): guerdon, reimburse; see also Thesaurus:reimburse
- (to adjust to a change): acclimatize, acclimate, accommodate, accustom, adapt; see also Thesaurus:accustom
- (to make up for): See Thesaurus:atone or Thesaurus:offset
Derived termsEdit
Related termsEdit
TranslationsEdit
To do (something good) after (something bad) happens
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to balance the scales, to equaliz, to reach equilibrium
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to pay someone in exchange for work done or some other consideration
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to make up for; to do something in place of something else; to correct or fill
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Further readingEdit
- compensate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
- compensate in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
ItalianEdit
VerbEdit
compensate
- second-person plural present indicative of compensare
- second-person plural imperative of compensare
- feminine plural of compensato
LatinEdit
VerbEdit
compēnsāte