REVENGE

REVENGE' is the most primitive mode in which crime is dealt with in society, and the whole tendency and spirit of the Mosaic Law goes to discourage and check it. This law permitted a man to execute punishment upon the slayer of any of his relatives, but for the purpose of restraining the blood-feuds common in the East at that day. In the N.T. the feeling of revenge is strongly condemned. Matt 5:39.

Part of speech: noun (n.)

1. The act of revenging; vengeance; retaliation; a returning of evil for evil. Certainly, in taking revenge, a man is even with his enemy; but in passing it over he is superior. Bacon.

2. The disposition to revenge; a malignant wishing of evil to one who has done us an injury. Revenge now goes To lay a complot to betray thy foes. Shak. The indulgence of revenge tends to make men more savage and cruel. Kames.

Part of speech: verb (v.)

1. To inflict harm in return for, as an injury, insult, etc.; to exact satisfaction for, under a sense of injury; to avenge; -- followed either by the wrong received, or by the person or thing wronged, as the object, or by the reciprocal pronoun as direct object, and a preposition before thewrong done or the wrongdoer. To revenge the death of our fathers. Ld. Berners. The gods are just, and will revenge our cause. Dryden. Come, Antony, and young Octavius, come, Revenge yourselves alone on Cassius. Shak.

2. To inflict injury for, in a spiteful, wrong, or malignant spirit; to wreak vengeance for maliciously.

Synonyms: avenge; vindicate. See Avenge.

Part of speech: verb (v.)

To take vengeance; -- with upon. [Obs.] "A bird that will revenge upon you all." Shak.