repay

present singular third person repays · participle present repaying · participle past repaid · past repaid

1. Synonym of pay back in all senses.

   I'll repay this wrong asap.

   5 more examples

   I finally repaid my student loans, just before sending my kids to college.

   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 you

   1973, 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

   Synonyms: liquidate, pay back in all senses

2. transitiveTo 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. transitiveTo give in return; requite.

present singular third person repays · participle present repaying · participle past repayed · past repayed · participle past repaid · past repaid

1. nauticalTo pay (cover with tar, pitch, etc.) again.