Venge

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To exact retribution for an offense or injury suffered To engage in actions aimed at punishing someone for a real or imagined wrong To seek to restore one’s honor by retaliating against an individual who has caused harm
2. To take action to punish someone for an injury or insult inflicted upon oneself
3. To respond to a perceived harm by inflicting a corresponding penalty or loss on the wrongdoer

Etymology: The verb "venge" is a fairly rare survivor of a much more common family. Its Latin source, "vindicare", meant "to claim," "to lay claim to," or "to set free," and the sense of punishing a wrong came in through legal and moral use: to vindicate a wrong was to set it right by exacting justice. That same Latin root gave English "vindicate" and "vindication," which kept the older, more legal sense, while "venge" took the sense of retaliation. The word reached English through Middle English "vengen," which was borrowed from Old French "venger." The French form carried the Latin meaning into a new home, and English speakers adopted it as a verb meaning to inflict punishment in return for an injury. Over time it was overshadowed by "avenge," a related form that shares the same lineage, and "venge" is now mostly found in older or literary writing.

Synonyms: avenge, retaliate, revenge

Antonyms: forgive, pardon