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vengeance - 5 dictionary results

venge⋅ance

  [ven-juhns]
Use vengeance in a Sentence
–noun
1. infliction of injury, harm, humiliation, or the like, on a person by another who has been harmed by that person; violent revenge: But have you the right to vengeance?
2. an act or opportunity of inflicting such trouble: to take one's vengeance.
3. the desire for revenge: a man full of vengeance.
4. Obsolete. hurt; injury.
5. Obsolete. curse; imprecation.
—Idiom
6. with a vengeance,
a. with force or violence.
b. greatly; extremely.
c. to an unreasonable, excessive, or surprising degree: He attacked the job with a vengeance.
Origin:
1250–1300; ME < OF, equiv. to vengi(er) to avenge (see venge ) + -ance -ance

Synonyms:
1. requital, retaliation. See revenge.

Antonyms:
1. forgiveness.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To vengeance
ven·geance   (věn'jəns)   
n.  Infliction of punishment in return for a wrong committed; retribution.

[Middle English, from Old French, from vengier, to avenge, from Latin vindicāre; see vindicate.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Vengeance

Venge"ance\, n. [F. vengeance, fr. venger to avenge, L. vindicare to lay claim to, defend, avenge, fr. vindex a claimant, defender, avenger, the first part of which is of uncertain origin, and the last part akin to dicere to say. See Diction, and cf. Avenge, Revenge, Vindicate.]

1. Punishment inflicted in return for an injury or an offense; retribution; -- often, in a bad sense, passionate or unrestrained revenge.

To me belongeth vengeance and recompense. --Deut. xxxii. 35.

To execute fierce vengeance on his foes. --Milton.

2. Harm; mischief. [Obs.] --Shak.

What a vengeance, or What the vengeance, what! -- emphatically. [Obs.] "But what a vengeance makes thee fly!" --Hudibras. "What the vengeance! Could he not speak 'em fair?" --Shak.

With a vengeance, with great violence; as, to strike with a vengeance. [Colloq.]
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : vengeance
Spanish: venganza,
German: die Rache,
Japanese: 復讐
More Translations »

vengeance 
1297, from Anglo-Fr. vengeaunce, O.Fr. vengeance "revenge," from vengier "take revenge," from L. vindicare "to set free, claim, avenge" (see vindicate). Vengeful (1586) is from obsolete M.E. venge "take revenge" (c.1300).
"Vengeance is mine, ... saith the Lord. Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink; for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head." [Paul to the Romans, xii:19-20]
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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vengeance

see with a vengeance.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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