COMPENSATE Com"pen*sate ( or ; 277), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Compensated; p. pr. & vb. n. Compensating.] Etym: [L. compensatus, p. p. of compensare, prop., to weigh several things with one another, to balance with one another, verb intens. fr. compendere. See Compendum.]
1. To make equal return to; to remunerate; to recompence; to give an equivalent to; to requite suitably; as, to compensate a laborer for his work, or a merchant for his losses.
2. To be equivalent in value or effect to; to counterbalance; to make up for; to make amends for. The length of the night and the dews thereof do compensate the heat of the day. Bacon. The pleasures of life do not compensate the miseries. Prior.
Syn. — To recompense; remunerate; indemnify; reward; requite; counterbalance.
COMPENSATE
Com"pen*sate, v. i.
Defn: To make amends; to supply an equivalent; — followed by for; as, nothing can compensate for the loss of reputation.
COMPENSATION Com`pen*sa"tion, n. Etym: [L. compensatio a weighing, a balancing of accounts.]
1. The act or principle of compensating. Emerson.
2. That which constitutes, or is regarded as, an equivalent; that which makes good the lack or variation of something else; that which compensates for loss or privation; amends; remuneration; recompense. The parliament which dissolved the monastic foundations . . . vouchsafed not a word toward securing the slightest compensation to the dispossessed owners. Hallam. No pecuniary compensation can possibly reward them. Burke.
3. (Law) (a) The extinction of debts of which two persons are reciprocally debtors by the credits of which they are reciprocally creditors; the payment of a debt by a credit of equal amount; a set-off. Bouvier. Wharton. (b) A recompense or reward for some loss or service. (c) An equivalent stipulated for in contracts for the sale of real eatate, in which it is customary to privide that errors in description, etc., shall not avoid, but shall be the subject of compensation. Compensation balance, or Compensated balance, a kind of balance wheel for a timepiece. The rim is usually made of two different expansibility under changes of temperature, so arranged as to counteract each other and preserve uniformity of movement. — Compensation pendulum. See Pendulum.