Etymology

From Middle EnglishCategory:English terms inherited from Middle English#REFUNDCategory:English terms derived from Middle English#REFUND refunden, refounden, from Old FrenchCategory:English terms derived from Old French#REFUND refondreCategory:English undefined derivations#REFUND, refonder, refunder (“to restore; pay back”), from LatinCategory:English terms derived from Latin#REFUND refundereCategory:English undefined derivations#REFUND; prefix re- (“re-”) + fundere (“to pour”): compare French refondre, refonder. See fuse (“to melt”), and compare refound (“to cast again”), and refuse.

Pronunciation

• (verb) enPR: rĭfŭnd', IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈfʌnd/Category:English 2-syllable words#REFUNDCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#REFUND

• Audio (US):

  (file)

  Category:English terms with audio pronunciation#REFUND
• (noun) enPR: rē'fŭnd', IPA^(key): /ˈɹiːfʌnd/Category:English 2-syllable words#REFUNDCategory:English terms with IPA pronunciation#REFUND

• Audio (US):

  (file)

  Category:English terms with audio pronunciation#REFUND
• Rhymes: -ʌndCategory:Rhymes:English/ʌnd#REFUNDCategory:Rhymes:English/ʌnd/2 syllables#REFUND

Verb

refund (third-person singular simple present refunds, present participle refunding, simple past and past participle refunded)Category:English lemmas#REFUNDCategory:English verbs#REFUNDCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#REFUNDCategory:Pages with entries#REFUNDCategory:Pages with 1 entry#REFUND

1. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#REFUND) To return (money) to (someone); to reimburse.

   If you find this computer for sale anywhere at a lower price, we’ll refund you the difference.Category:English terms with usage examples#REFUND

   • 1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC:

     A Governor, that had Pillag'd the People, was […] sentenc'd to Refund what he had Wrongfully Taken.

     Category:English terms with quotations#REFUND

   • 1878, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Down the Oise: To Moy”, in An Inland Voyage, London: C[harles] Kegan Paul & Co., […], →OCLC, page 141:

     Finding us easy in our ways, he […] told me a cock-and-bull story with the moral of another five francs for the narrator. The thing was palpably absurd; but I paid up, and at once dropped all friendliness of manner, and kept him in his place as an inferior with freezing British dignity. He saw in a moment that he had gone too far, and killed a willing horse; his face fell; I am sure he would have refunded if he could only have thought of a decent pretext.

     An intransitive use of the word.

     Category:English terms with quotations#REFUND

2. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#REFUND, colloquialCategory:English colloquialisms#REFUND) To obtain a refund.

   This game sucks, Imma refund it.Category:English terms with usage examples#REFUND

3. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#REFUND, obsoleteCategory:English terms with obsolete senses#REFUND) To supply (someone) again with funds.

   to refund a railroad loanCategory:English terms with usage examples#REFUND

4. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#REFUND, obsoleteCategory:English terms with obsolete senses#REFUND, rareCategory:English terms with rare senses#REFUND) To pour back (something).
   • 1691, John Ray, The Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of the Creation. […], London: […] Samuel Smith, […], →OCLC:

     Were the humours of the eye tinctured with any colour, they would refund that colour upon the object.

     Category:English terms with quotations#REFUND

   • 1749, [John Cleland], “(Please specify the letter or volume)”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], London: […] [Thomas Parker] for G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], →OCLC:

     When our mutual trance was a little over, and the young fellow had withdrawn that delicious stretcher, with which he had most plentifully drowned all thoughts of revenge in the sense of actual pleasure, the widen'd wounded passage refunded a stream of pearly liquids, which flowed down my thighs, mixed with streaks of blood

     Category:English terms with quotations#REFUND

Noun

refund (plural refunds)Category:English lemmas#REFUNDCategory:English nouns#REFUNDCategory:English countable nouns#REFUNDCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#REFUNDCategory:Pages with entries#REFUNDCategory:Pages with 1 entry#REFUND

1. An amount of money returned.

   If the camera is faulty, you can return it to the store where you bought it for a full refund.Category:English terms with usage examples#REFUND

   • 2026 March 18, Philip Haigh, “Tickets please: 2p per scan to offset fraudulent refunds?”, in RAIL, number 1057, page 48:

     RDG explains: "From April 1 2026, the following tickets, Anytime, Off-Peak, Day Travelcards and most Ranger and Rover tickets, will no longer be refundable on the day they become valid for travel." It calls the £40m it thinks it loses "refund abuse", which it explains as "refunds on tickets that have been used but not scanned or endorsed, where a customer falsely states that they did not travel". I'm sure such abuse takes place (and that it's done by passengers). But RDG is taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut and punishing many millions of honest passengers by making tickets more restrictive.

     Category:English terms with quotations#REFUND

Anagrams

• Dufner, funder