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