revenge
n. uncountablen. the act of hurting someone because they did something bad to you first. You do this to get even or feel better after being treated unfairly.
n. the action of inflicting hurt or harm on someone for an injury or wrong suffered at their hands. Often used in the context of personal retaliation rather than legal justice.
He took his revenge by telling everyone her secret.
The protagonist spends the entire movie planning his revenge against the people who stole his business.
While some cultures view revenge as a necessary restoration of honor, modern legal systems are designed to replace personal vendettas with impartial adjudication.
From Middle French revenge, a derivation from revenger, from Old French revengier (possibly influenced by Old Occitan revènge (“revenge, comeback”), from Old Occitan revenir (“to come back”)), a variant of Middle French revancher (whence deverbal French revanche), from Old French revenchier. The variants Old French vengier (whence French venger) and Old French venchier are both descended from Latin vindicō, with stress-conditioned different parallel development in the inflectional forms. Doublet of revanche. Compare avenge and vengeance.
From Middle English revengen, from Old French revengier, revenger.
Commonly follows the verbs 'take', 'seek', or 'exact'. Often paired with the preposition 'on' or 'against' to indicate the target.
He revenged his enemyHe took revenge on his enemyIn modern English, 'revenge' is primarily used as a noun; using it as a verb is rare and often considered archaic or incorrect in general contexts.