restitute

Etymology

From Old French restituer, from Latin restituō (“replace, restore”).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈɹɛstɪtjuːt/, /ˈɹɛstɪtuːt/
Audio (Southern England): (file)

Verb

restitute (third-person singular simple present restitutes, present participle restituting, simple past and past participle restituted)

(transitive) To restore (something) to its former condition.
Synonyms: restore, roll back; see also Thesaurus:revert
- 2025 August 24, “Ethiopian Heritage Authority Intensifies Push to Restitute Looted Artifacts”, in ENA Reliable News Source‎, Ethiopian News Agency, retrieved 29 August 2025:
(transitive) To provide recompense for (something).
- 1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 17]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:
  […] when Frederick M. (Bantam) Lyons had rapidly and successively requested, perused and restituted the copy of the current issue of the Freeman's Journal and National Press which he had been about to throw away (subsequently thrown away), he had proceeded towards the oriental edifice of the Turkish and Warm Baths. […]
- 1966, Anaïs Nin, Incest, published 1993, →ISBN, page 28:
  What I spill in talk or acts rarely is restituted in writing.
- 1980, Harold Bloom, Wallace Stevens: The Poems of Our Climate, →ISBN, page 266:
  [W]hat it represents is the inability of language to restitute the loss of memory.
(transitive) To refund.
Synonym: reimburse
- 2004, Brian Haig, Private Sector, →ISBN, page 31:
  We were even ordered to restitute the legal costs of the defendants.

Derived terms

Related terms

restitution

Translations

To restore or return to former condition

Indonesian: merestitusikan
Italian: restituire (it)
Romanian: restitui (ro)
Russian: восстана́вливать (ru) (vosstanávlivatʹ)
Spanish: restituir (es)
Tagalog: isauli

To refund

Finnish: korvata (fi)

Noun

restitute (plural restitutes)

That which is restored or offered in place of something; a substitute.

restitute

English