VENGEANCE

vengeance, retribution, payback

(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”

Source: WordNet® 3.1

Etymology

Noun

vengeance (countable and uncountable, plural vengeances)

Revenge taken for an insult, injury, or other wrong.

Desire for revenge.

Synonyms

• reprisal

• retaliation

• retribution

• revenge

• wreak

• See also revenge

Antonyms

• reconciliation

Source: Wiktionary

Venge"ance, n. Etym: [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. To me belongeth vengeance and recompense. Deut. xxxii. 35. To execute fierce vengeance on his foes. Milton.

2. Harm; mischief. [Obs.] Shak. 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, with great violence; as, to strike with a vengeance. [Colloq.]

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition