revenge

Definition

Any form of personal, retaliatory action against an individual, institution, or group for some alleged or perceived harm or injustice.

Etymology

From Middle French revenge, a derivation from revenger, from Old French revengier (possibly influenced by Old Occitan revènge (“revenge, comeback”), from Old Occitan revenir (“to come back”)), a variant of Middle French revancher (whence deverbal French revanche), from Old French revenchier. The variants Old French vengier (whence French venger) and Old French venchier are both descended from Latin vindicō, with stress-conditioned different parallel development in the inflectional forms. Doublet of revanche. Compare avenge and vengeance.

Example Sentences

• "Indifference is the sweetest revenge."
• "When I left my wife, she tried to set fire to the house in revenge."
• "After tearing his fave T-shirt unintentionally, my brother wreaked revenge on me by ripping my most prized blazer apart."