redound

present singular third person redounds · participle present redounding · participle past redounded · past redounded

1. intransitiveobsoleteTo swell up (of water, waves etc.); to overflow, to surge (of bodily fluids).First known use 14th–19th c.

   For every dram of hony therein found / A pound of gall doth over it redound […].

   1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book IV, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC

2. intransitiveTo contribute to an advantage or disadvantage for someone or something.First known use 15th c.

   The honour done to our religion ultimately redounds to God, the author of it.

   a. 1729, John Rogers, A prudent conduct recommended and enforced

   2 more examples

   The fact that in one case the advance redounds to private advantage and in the other, theoretically, to the public good, does not alter the core assumptions common to both.

   1970, Alvin Toffler, Future Shock, Bantam Books, page 448

   He [Sam Altman] came with a message that was both chilling and inspiring: without proper controls, advanced artificial intelligence might spell doom—but if you trust OpenAI to build it first, the technology will redound to the good of humanity.

   2025 May 24, Richard Waters, “AI’s flawed frontman”, in FT Weekend (Books section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 10

3. intransitiveTo contribute to the honour, shame etc. of a person or organisation.First known use 15th c.

   One thing about the ‘John McCain-didn’t-sleep-with-a-lobbyist’ story redounds to the New York Times’ credit.

   2008 March 2, Peter Preston, The Observer

   2 more examples

   I did not omit even our Sports and Paſtimes, or any other Particular which I thought might redound to the Honour of my Country.

   1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], “Several Contrivances of the Author to Please the King and Queen. […]”, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part II (A Voyage to Brobdingnag), page 259

   Runciman viewed many of the Crusades’ protagonists with sympathy, but he thought that the movement as a whole was destructive and did not redound to the honour of the faith.

   2019, Αντώνιος Καλδέλλης [Anthony Kaldellis], Byzantium Unbound (Past Imperfect), Leeds: Arc Humanities Press, →ISBN, chapter 4: “Byzantium Was Not Medieval”, pages 87–88

4. intransitiveTo reverberate, to echo.First known use 15th c.
5. transitiveTo reflect (honour, shame etc.) to or onto someone.First known use 15th c.
6. intransitiveTo attach, come back, accrue to someone; to reflect back on or upon someone (of honour, shame etc.).First known use 16th c.

   His infamous behaviour only redounded back upon him when he was caught.

   1 more example

   […] that is, they concede the accuracy of certain classic attacks on communism, but in ways that redound on their opponents.

   2022, China Miéville, chapter 3, in A Spectre, Haunting: On the Communist Manifesto, →OCLC

7. intransitiveTo arise from or out of something.First known use 16th c.
8. intransitiveusuallyfloodTo roll back; to be sent or driven back.

   The evil, soon driven back, redounded as a flood on those from whom it sprung.

   1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC

plural redounds

1. A coming back, as an effect or consequence; a return.