Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To offset; counterbalance.
  • intransitive verb To make satisfactory payment or reparation to; recompense or reimburse.
  • intransitive verb To stabilize the purchasing power of (a monetary unit) by changing the gold content in order to counterbalance price variations.
  • intransitive verb To serve as or provide a substitute or counterbalance.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To give a substitute of equal value to; give an equivalent to; recompense: as, to compensate a laborer for his work or a merchant for his losses.
  • To make up for; counterbalance; make amends for.
  • In mech., to construct so as to effect compensation for the results of variations of temperature. See compensation, 4.
  • Synonyms Recompense, Remunerate, etc. (see indemnify), reward.
  • To supply or serve as an equivalent; make amends; atone: followed by for: as, what can compensate for the loss of honor?

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To make amends; to supply an equivalent; -- followed by for.
  • transitive verb To make equal return to; to remunerate; to recompense; to give an equivalent to; to requite suitably.
  • transitive verb To be equivalent in value or effect to; to counterbalance; to make up for; to make amends for.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To pay or reward someone in exchange for work done or some other consideration.
  • verb 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.
  • verb To adjust or adapt to a change; often a negative, (harmful, or depriving) or undesired one.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb make payment to; compensate
  • verb make up for shortcomings or a feeling of inferiority by exaggerating good qualities
  • verb do or give something to somebody in return
  • verb adjust for
  • verb make reparations or amends for
  • verb make amends for; pay compensation for

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin compēnsāre, compēnsāt- : com-, com- + pēnsāre, to weigh; see (s)pen- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

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").

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Examples

  • Since they did not have adequate fund to compare or come tighten to this volume of money, they offering a multiple of an increase in compensate as well as a have make have make make use of of of of of of Buffalo Rapids vehicles for personal use.

    Archive 2009-12-01 admin 2009

  • Since they did not have adequate fund to compare or come tighten to this volume of money, they offering a multiple of an increase in compensate as well as a have make have make make use of of of of of of Buffalo Rapids vehicles for personal use.

    September 09, 2009 Meeting Minutes admin 2009

  • However chief executive Colin Tweedy said: "It is important to stress that in no way will a growth in private-sector funding in the short or medium-term compensate for cuts of between 25 and 40 per cent."

    Evening Standard - Home 2010

  • However am very luck as do get a weekday off to compensate, which is rather lovely, and I usually spend at least part of the day with my Dad-this week we shall be working on the front garden!

    Weekend working The List Writer 2008

  • Twisting the wheel slightly to the left makes the motorcycle dip to the right to compensate, which is how you turn on a bike, and how you really * should* be turning even in a parking lot.

    EXTRALIFE – By Scott Johnson - What do you get when you cross a dirt bike, snowmobile and 4-wheeler? 2006

  • An easy way to compensate is to adjust the white point: you tell iMovie which color is supposed to be white, and it modifies the rest of the colors to compensate.

    Macworld 2010

  • An easy way to compensate is to adjust the white point: you tell iMovie which color is supposed to be white, and it modifies the rest of the colors to compensate.

    Macworld 2010

  • An easy way to compensate is to adjust the white point: you tell iMovie which color is supposed to be white, and it modifies the rest of the colors to compensate.

    Macworld 2010

  • Maybe nature has a way to compensate aka 'vitamin stupid' from the hippocampus.

    New Scientist - Online News 2010

  • The only way to compensate is to 'do an Arsenal' and play a mainly youth team in the domestic cup competitions and if this lessens the worth of these competitions, so what?

    Manchester Evening News - RSS Feed 2010

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