• IPA: /ɹɪˈvɛndʒ/

revenge (uncountable)

1. Any form of personal retaliatory action against an individual, institution, or group#Noun|group for some alleged#Adjective|alleged or perceived harm#Noun|harm or injustice.

   Synonyms: payback, wreak, Thesaurus:revenge

   Indifference is the sweetest revenge.

   When I left my wife, she tried to set fire to the house in revenge.

2. A win#Noun|win by a previous loser.
   • 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter I, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, OCLC 731476803 ↗:

     “I'm through with all pawn-games,” I laughed. “Come, let us have a game of lansquenet. Either I will take a farewell fall out of you or you will have your sevenfold revenge”.

• French: vengeance, revanche
• German: Rache
• Italian: vendetta, rivincita, rivalsa, ritorsione
• Portuguese: vingança
• Russian: месть
• Spanish: venganza

revenge (revenges, present participle revenging; past and past participle revenged)

1. (transitive) To take#Verb|take revenge for (a particular harmful action) or on behalf of (its victim); to avenge.

   Arsenal revenged its loss to Manchester United last time with a 5–0 drubbing this time.

   • to revenge the death of our fathers

   • The gods are just, and will revenge our cause.

   • circa 1840, Leigh Hunt, The Seer; Or, Common-places Refreshed

     However, my veneration for that illustrious man was so great, that on the night when he died, I revenged him finely on his two principal enemies.

2. (transitive, reflexive) To take one's revenge (on or upon someone).
   • 1599, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Ivlivs Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act IV, scene iii]:

     Come, Antony, and young Octavius, come, / Revenge yourselves alone on Cassius.

3. (intransitive, archaic) To take vengeance; to revenge itself.
   • c. 1591–1592, William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act I, scene iv]:

     a bird that will revenge upon you all

   1814, Dante Alighieri, “Canto VII”, in H[enry] F[rancis] Cary, transl., The Vision; or, Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise, of Dante Alighieri. [...] In Three Volumes, volume III (Paradise), London: Printed for Taylor and Hessey, […], OCLC 559008226 ↗, lines 45–47, page 30 ↗:

   Count it not hard henceforth, when thou dost hear / That a just vengeance was by righteous court / Justly reveng'd. [...]

• French: se venger (de quelqu'un)

• French: venger
• German: rächen
• Italian: vendicarsi
• Portuguese: vingar-se
• Russian: мстить

• Portuguese: vingar
• Russian: мстить