Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To repay (money spent); refund.
  • transitive verb To pay back or compensate (another party) for money spent or losses incurred.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To replace in a purse, treasury, or fund, as an equivalent for what has been taken, expended, or lost; pay back; restore; refund: as, to reimburse the expenses of a war.
  • To pay back to; repay to; indemnify.
  • Synonyms Remunerate, Recompense, etc. See indemnify.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To replace in a treasury or purse, as an equivalent for what has been taken, lost, or expended; to refund; to pay back; to restore.
  • transitive verb To make restoration or payment of an equivalent to (a person); to pay back to; to indemnify; -- often reflexive.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To compensate with payment; especially, to repay money spent on one's behalf.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb reimburse or compensate (someone), as for a loss
  • verb pay back for some expense incurred

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[re– + imburse, to put in a purse, pay (from French embourser, from Old French : en-, in from Latin in-; see in– + borser, to get money, from borse, purse, from Late Latin bursa, bag; see bursa).]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

1610s, re- (“back”) +‎ imburse (“pay”) (imburse (literally "put in a purse"), circa 1530, now obsolete), from Middle French embourser, from Old French in + borser ("to get money"), from borse ("purse"), from Medieval Latin bursa (English purse).

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word reimburse.

Examples

  • Out of the £2010 Purnell would "reimburse" his ex-fiance, Lucy Walker.

    Purnell Pockets £10k Tom Hagen 2009

  • Out of the £2010 Purnell would "reimburse" his ex-fiance, Lucy Walker.

    Archive 2009-05-01 Tom Hagen 2009

  • She said she thought her campaign would "reimburse" Wade for her share.

    April 2006 2006

  • She said then that the bill was so high because Wade bought several expensive bottles of wine to take home and that she had expected her campaign to "reimburse" Wade for her share of the meal.

    Talk about an expensive date ... Sinfonian 2007

  • She said then that the bill was so high because Wade bought several expensive bottles of wine to take home and that she had expected her campaign to "reimburse" Wade for her share of the meal.

    Archive 2007-10-28 Sinfonian 2007

  • On the pretext of compensating those who suffered as a result of the Iraqi invasion, the committee creamed off up to 30% of Iraq's oil revenue to "reimburse" impoverished victims, such as the Kuwaiti Oil Company.

    Wednesday, August 31, 2005 As'ad 2005

  • Bush even said he would "reimburse" churches for the money they put out helping victims of Katrina.

    Republicans�� Biggest Lies 2005

  • Bush even said he would "reimburse" churches for the money they put out helping victims of Katrina.

    Republicans�� Biggest Lies 2005

  • Mr Cowen fully backed the call from the Seanad members 'interests committee for Mr Callely to live up to his promise that he would "reimburse" or "repay" any overpayment of his travel expenses.

    Independent.ie - Frontpage RSS Feed 2010

  • AIG will 'reimburse' the taxpayers up to $165 million for bonuses the company is giving employees.

    GlobalResearch.ca 2009

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.