1Pay back (a loan)

1. 1.1 Pay back money borrowed from (someone)
   most of his fortune had been spent repaying creditors

   Example sentencesExamples

   • The minister says he made a mistake in giving him a spouse's rail ticket, and has now repaid the money.
   • Haughey repaid the money along with another $10,000 in 1992.
   • They give him enough money to repay Mary and to buy himself some new clothes.
   • Poor people have less money to spend and less money to repay their debts.
   • Of course, the federal government is duty-bound to repay you, the lender, as prescribed by the debt obligation.
   • Mike got in trouble with the tailor, but he couldn't repay him because he went bankrupt.
   • This weekend, one of the farmers to whom Ellis's business owed money described efforts to repay debts during 1987.
   • Almost any kind of interior design work will cost you money and that money will not be repaid to you when you eventually sell your house.
   • Is some of your writing, in a sense, to repay him through your work?
   • The money that goes toward the principal repays the money you borrowed to purchase the home.
   • You exchange money for a promise from the bank to repay you, subject to whatever limitations and provisions you may have agreed to in advance.
   • Reynolds insists vehemently that the money will be repaid soon - in 14 days, he insisted on one occasion.
   • The next day Nelly meets with Arnaud at the café and he writes her a cheque for 30,000 francs, dismissing her insistence that she'll repay the money as soon as she can.
   • Nora hesitates to ask him for the large sum of money she needs to repay her debt to Krogstad.
   • Contacted his ex-wife, his father, his mother, his siblings, his friends, his colleagues - anyone other than us - to borrow the money he needed to repay us.
   • One phone call told me that I should have thought about how I was going to repay the money before I borrowed.
   • The King in turn could tax his subjects to repay the money, so he didn't need to worry about his ‘credit rating’ with the Bank.
   • He promises to repay the robbed travellers, and undertakes to obtain Sir John a place in the King's army during the impending civil war.
   • She borrowed a large sum of money from a creditor, and constantly must worry about repaying him at the same time as carrying on her typical life of shopping and caring for the house and children.
   • Six clients had money diverted from their accounts, though Joyce is reported to have repaid much of the money.
2. 1.2 Do or give something as recompense for (a favour or kindness received)
   the manager has given me another chance and I'm desperate to repay that faith

   Example sentencesExamples

   • And he's done me a favour so I'm repaying him, so don't you lot be so mean to him.
   • Rowena says that Ivanhoe was just repaying her many kindnesses.
   • If William II visited John Peter in the west and John repaid the favour in London, we might inquire what opportunities for social broadening a visit by John or Will Peter to their London cousin entailed.
   • Michael saw it as characteristic of Miss Laudon's graciousness to repay her friend's loyalty in this way.
   • Amelia would take Colonel Dobbin not as a rich, but as a poor man - thus atoning for her ‘selfishness’ over the years, and repaying his kindness when she was penniless.
   • For So Little Time, Coleman repays the favour, joining Otter's band for three of the album's eight tracks.
   • Now we would like to repay the kindness, not only in the economic field, but also in education,’ he said.
   • Kong saves her many times from the carnivorous dinosaurs and she repays him with her trust.
   • But he silently vowed, with all the resolve that had brought him off the streets of Kyoto to the New Jerusalem of America, that one day, in some way, he would repay this kindness.
   • Smart people will repay you for your generosity many times over with their trust.
   • Three decades later and Constance, by now a barrister, repaid the favour by successfully acting for the school when it mutated into a hotel and sought a liquor licence.
   • As Bob Gottlied and Irene Wolt have documented in their history of the Times, the editors repaid Richardson for his service with a juicy promotion to staff reporter.
   • Now the company is repaying their loyalty and hard work by throwing one in eight of staff on the dole’.
   • To a casual viewer that's just an ugly woman on the till, but if you're a fan it repays your loyalty.
   • Lamb undertook the charge of his sister, who remained liable to periodic breakdowns, and she repaid him with great sympathy and affection.
   • Maybe we can hope that she'll repay the favour on their next outing.
   • So, will the morally dubious Sinbad high-tail it off to the safety of Bali, or will he keep his word, risk life and limb to find the book, and repay the loyalty his good friend has shown him?
   • Eliza once saved an African shaman who repaid her kindness by bestowing her with the ability to talk with critters.
   • To repay Arthur for once saving his life, Ford wants Arthur to join him as he flees the doomed planet.
   • His donation documents show his concern to provide a properly dignified and devout burial for himself and to repay the kindness of his neighbor Giovan Simone for taking care of him in his infirm old age.

   Synonyms

   reciprocate, return, requite, recompense, reward

   return the favour, return the compliment

   archaic guerdon
3. 1.3British Be worth devoting time to (a specified action)
   these sites would repay more detailed investigation

   Synonyms

   be well worth

   be worth one's while, be worthwhile, be useful, be advantageous