compensate
/ˈkɒmpɛnseɪt
/ /ˈkɒmp(ə)nseɪt /verb
1 [with object] Give (someone) something, typically money, in recognition of loss, suffering, or injury incurred; recompense: payments were made to farmers to compensate them for cuts in subsidies...
- If I am injured in body or pocket I expect the person causing that injury to compensate me for any losses that I incur unless it has been a genuine accident.
- No amount of money will ever truly compensate me for the loss I've suffered, the stress and emotional affect this has had on me.
- The insurers then claimed the sum from the bus company insurers together with money to compensate me for ‘loss of use’ of the car until I bought a new car in August.
Synonyms
recompense, repay, pay back, reimburse, remunerate, recoup, requite, indemnify;
settle up with, settle accounts with
1.1Pay (someone) for work performed: he will be richly compensated for his efforts...
- Nor does the typical academic journal have sufficient resources to compensate graduate students to perform this task.
- There are two other contingencies needed in a system that compensates drivers based on performance.
- Adams thinks people often work more efficiently for their own employer than for a contract job, and that having control over who he hires and how his staff is compensated makes a big difference in performance.
2 [no object] (compensate for) Reduce or counteract (something unwelcome or unpleasant) by exerting an opposite force or effect: the manager is hoping for victory to compensate for the team’s dismal league campaign...
- My issue is that he's compensating for his own missed childhood by appropriating other people's childhoods.
Synonyms
make amends, make up, make restitution, make reparation, make recompense, recompense, atone, requite, pay;
expiate, make good, put to rights, rectify, offset, square
2.1Act so as to neutralize or correct (a deficiency or abnormality in a physical property or effect): the output voltage rises, compensating for the original fall...
- But to believe that this renders them unusable is to underestimate the skills that most artists would surely have for interpreting, improvising, and compensating for any deficiencies.
- The title's realistic firefight sound effects partially compensate for this glaring deficiency.
- Corrections to compensate for the effects of constant errors can be determined from the TFT.
Synonyms
balance, balance out, counterbalance, counteract, counterpoise, countervail, make up for, offset, cancel out, neutralize, nullify, even up, square up
rare equilibrize, negative, counterweigh
Derivatives
compensative
/ adjective ...- Repeated chemoembolization can be prescribed for postoperative patients with compensative liver function.
- This compensative action was insufficient when the glucose concentration was too high.
- Based on the models, an adaptive temperature compensative control method for a clutch working process was put forward.
compensator
/ noun ...- Manufacturers tailor compact, uncooled cameras for airport screening applications by adding temperature compensators, analysis software, or self-calibration capabilities.
- Problems arise occasionally, but contemporary masks, fins, snorkels, regulators and buoyancy compensators are far better than they were even a few years ago.
- What I am interested in is determining which stance provides the best all-around control, under duress, using a defensive handgun without benefit of compensators, ports or other gadgets.
Origin
Mid 17th century (in the sense 'counterbalance'): from Latin compensat- 'weighed against', from the verb compensare, from com- 'together' + pensare (frequentative of pendere 'weigh').