Vengeance

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: venge=ance

CIDE DICTIONARY

Vengeance, 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.].

•  Punishment inflicted in return for an injury or an offense; retribution; -- often, in a bad sense, passionate or unrestrained revenge.  [1913 Webster]

  "To me belongeth vengeance and recompense."  [1913 Webster]

  "To execute fierce vengeance on his foes."  [1913 Webster]
•  Harm; mischief.  Shak.  [1913 Webster]

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, (a) with great violence; as, to strike with a vengeance. [Colloq.] (b) with even greater intensity; as, to return one's insult with a vengeance.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Vengeance, n. punishment inflicted or retribution exacted for wrong to oneself or to a person etc. whose cause one supports.

Idiom

with a vengeance in a higher degree than was expected or desired; in the fullest sense (punctuality with a vengeance).

Etymology

ME f. OF f. venger avenge f. L (as VINDICATE)

THESAURUS

Vengeance

avengement, avenging, blood feud, counterblow, energetically, enthusiastically, ferociously, feud, fiercely, forcefully, furiously, getting even, repayment, reprisal, requital, retaliation, retribution, return, revanche, revanchism, revenge, revengefulness, sweet revenge, vehemently, vendetta, vengefulness, violently, wholeheartedly, wildly, with a vengeance

ROGET THESAURUS

Vengeance

Revenge

N revenge, revengement, vengeance, avengement, avengeance, sweet revenge, vendetta, death feud, blood for blood retaliation, day of reckoning, rancor, vindictiveness, implacability, malevolence, ruthlessness, avenger, vindicator, Nemesis, Eumenides, revengeful, vengeful, vindictive, rancorous, pitiless, ruthless, rigorous, avenging, unforgiving, unrelenting, inexorable, stony-hearted, implacable, relentless, remorseless, aeternum servans sub pectore vulnus, rankling, immitigable, manet ciratrix, manet alid mente repostum, dies irae dies illa, in high vengeance there is noble scorn, inhumanum verbum est ultio, malevolus animus abditos dentes habet, now infidel I have thee on the hip.