vengeance

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman vengeaunce, from Old French vengeance, venjance, from vengier (to avenge). Analysable as venge + -ance.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈvɛnˌd͡ʒəns/
  • (file)
  • Rhymes: -ɛnd͡ʒəns

Noun

vengeance (countable and uncountable, plural vengeances)

  1. Revenge taken for an insult, injury, or other wrong.
    • 2000, Gladiator (film):
      My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North; General of the Felix Legions; loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius; father to a murdered son; husband to a murdered wife; and I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next.
    • 2022 April 5, Hannity, Sean; Sean Penn, Sean Penn joins Sean Hannity to discuss Russian invasion of Ukraine (Hannity), Fox News, archived from the original on 11 April 2022, 22:33 from the start:
      Penn: I don't want to invest in the conversation, not that I don't have it privately, about my feelings about what direct action should happen to a leader who does that, but if there is a God, there will be vengeance beyond all possible comprehension.
      Hannity: "Vengeance is mine saith the Lord", quoted in a very famous book.
  2. Desire for revenge.
    • 1855 December – 1857 June, Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit, London: Bradbury and Evans, [], published 1857, OCLC 83401042:
      Thereupon full of anger, full of jealousy, full of vengeance, she forms [] a scheme of retribution, []
    • 2008, Jean Harvey Baker, Mary Todd Lincoln: A Biography, →ISBN:
      If her husband was all forgiveness, asking the bands to play “Dixie,” she was full of vengeance []
    • 2011, James Calloway, Black America, Not in This America, →ISBN:
      Are they full of vengeance[?], because they say that people with vengeance in their hearts must dig two graves, one for their enemy and the other for themselves.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Translations


French

Etymology

venger + -ance

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /vɑ̃.ʒɑ̃s/
  • Rhymes: -ɑ̃s
  • Homophone: vengeances
  • Hyphenation: ven‧geance

Noun

vengeance f (plural vengeances)

  1. revenge, vengeance

Derived terms

Further reading


Old French

Noun

vengeance f (oblique plural vengeances, nominative singular vengeance, nominative plural vengeances)

  1. Alternative form of venjance
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