'Vengeance' definitions:
Definition of 'vengeance'
(from WordNet)
noun
The act of taking revenge (harming someone in retaliation for something harmful that they have done) especially in the next life; "Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord"--Romans 12:19; "For vengeance I would do nothing. This nation is too great to look for mere revenge"--James Garfield; "he swore vengeance on the man who betrayed him"; "the swiftness of divine retribution" [syn: vengeance, retribution, payback]
Definition of 'Vengeance'
From: GCIDE
- Vengeance \Venge"ance\, 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.]
- 1. 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. --Deut. xxxii. 35. [1913 Webster]
- To execute fierce vengeance on his foes. --Milton. [1913 Webster]
- 2. Harm; mischief. [Obs.] --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. [1913 Webster + PJC]
Synonyms of 'vengeance'
From: Moby Thesaurus
- 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