reimburse, v.
(riːɪmˈbɜːs)
Also 7 -bourse.
[re- 5 a, perh. after F. rembourser.]
1. trans. To repay or make up to one (a sum expended).
| 1611 Cotgr., Rembourser, to reimburse; to repay, restore, or giue backe, money spent, etc. 1671 Evelyn Diary 26 June, The mony we laid out to be reimbours'd out of the contingent monies set apart for us. 1733–4 Berkeley in Fraser Life vi. 218 You will also remember to take bonds for the money, to be reimbursed for the Deanery-house. 1793 Smeaton Edystone L. (ed. 2) Pref. 5 It will a good deal fall short of reimbursing my expences. 1839 Hallam Hist. Lit. iii. i. §8 The tardy sale of so voluminous a work could not have reimbursed the cost. 1872 Yeats Growth Comm. 231 The capital..he reckoned at 10,000,000 guilders, which four prosperous trips would amply reimburse. |
† b. To refund, disgorge. Obs. rare—1.
| 1725 Ramsay Gentle Sheph. v. iii, I'll strip him soon of all to her pertains, And make him reimburse his ill-got gains. |
2. To repay, recompense (a person). Also const. for, † of (the expenditure, etc.).
| 1637–50 Row Hist. Kirk (Wodrow Soc.) 112 The poore men to be reimbursed. 1669 S. Pepys in Pepys' Diary, etc. (1879) VI. 110, I will see you fully and thankfully reimbursed for what charges shall attend the same. 1672 Dryden Assignation v. iii, You'll find occasion instantly to reimburse me of my kindness. 1707 Farquhar Beaux' Strat. i. i, They are willing to reimburse us a little. 1790 Beatson Nav. & Mil. Mem. I. 266 The Colonists were reimbursed by Parliament of all the expences incurred by them in this expedition. a 1859 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xxv. V. 251 They had disbursed money largely,..with the certainty that they should never be reimbursed unless the outlay proved beneficial to the public. |
b. refl. Also in transf. uses.
| 1724 Swift Drapier's Lett. Wks. 1755 V. ii. 47 Hath he saved any other kingdom at his own expence, to give him a title of reimbursing himself by the destruction of ours? 1818 Scott Hrt. Midl. ii, Wilson felt no scruple of conscience in resolving to reimburse himself for his losses. 1850 Grote Greece ii. lxv. (1862) V. 539 Eager to reimburse themselves for this humiliation, they now formed a conspiracy..to seize the government. |
3. With double object: (cf. 1 and 2).
| 1624 Capt. Smith Virginia Pref. 1 The issue may well reimburse you your summes expended. 1687 A. Lovell tr. Thevenot's Trav. i. 257 Till he be reimbursed the money that he hath laid out. a 1745 Swift Story of an Injured Lady Wks. 1751 XIV. 100 It was but reasonable..to reimburse him some of his Charges. 1803 Wellington in Gurw. Desp. (1838) I. 390 If he had consented to be reimbursed this expedition he would have received bonds..for this sum of money. 1841 Macaulay Ess., Hastings (1854) 655 His friends in Leadenhall Street proposed to reimburse him the costs of his trial. |
Hence reimˈburser, reimˈbursing vbl. n.
| 1611 Cotgr., Rembourseur, a reimburser; repayer. Ibid., Remboursement,..a reimbursing. 1727–38 Chambers Cycl. s.v. Reimbursement, Reimbursing is also used for paying the price a commodity costs its owner. |