Money repaid or returned; revenge or retaliation for something bad someone did to you.
A compound of 'pay' and 'back,' emerging in American English in the early 20th century. It combines the economic meaning of repayment with the sense of 'returning' harm or debt.
Payback is interesting because it's a compound word that works two opposite ways—you can have financial payback (getting money back) or revenge payback (getting harm back)—showing how English lets us flip meanings by context alone.
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