Unpay

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To cancel or reverse a payment that has already been made, so that the money is returned or no longer counts as paid
2. To take back or undo the act of paying something, restoring the situation as it stood before the money changed hands
3. Reversing a settled payment by returning the funds or revoking the transfer, leaving the amount owed as if it had never been paid

Etymology: "Unpay" is a plain formation: the prefix "un-" joined to the verb "pay." Its earliest recorded form was the Middle English "unpayen" (also "unpaien"), which combined "un-," the old English-derived prefix meaning "reverse" or "undo," with "pay." Here the prefix works as a reversing element, so the word means to undo the act of paying, that is, to reverse or cancel a payment already made.