All 9 Uses of
unrequited
in
The Scarlet Letter
- "I know not Lethe nor Nepenthe," remarked he; "but I have learned many new secrets in the wilderness, and here is one of them—a recipe that an Indian taught me, in requital of some lessons of my own, that were as old as Paracelsus."
Chpt 4requital = in payment (in return for)editor's notes: Today, unrequited is used much more commonly than forms of requite. You'll probably learn unrequited first. The prefix "un-" means not, so when it's not there, the meaning of unrequited is reversed. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
- …commiseration for a woman of so miserable a destiny; or from the morbid curiosity that gives a fictitious value even to common or worthless things; or by whatever other intangible circumstance was then, as now, sufficient to bestow, on some persons, what others might seek in vain; or because Hester really filled a gap which must otherwise have remained vacant; it is certain that she had ready and fairly requited employment for as many hours as she saw fit to occupy with her needle.
Chpt 5requited = paid in returneditor's notes: Today, unrequited is used much more commonly than requited, so you'll probably learn unrequited first. The prefix "un-" means not, so when it's not there, the meaning of unrequited is reversed. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
- Pearl felt the sentiment, and requited it with the bitterest hatred that can be supposed to rankle in a childish bosom.
Chpt 6requited = repaid or returnededitor's notes: Today, unrequited is used much more commonly than requited, so you'll probably learn unrequited first. The prefix "un-" means not, so when it's not there, the meaning of unrequited is reversed. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
- He gave her in requital of all things else which ye had taken from me.
Chpt 8requital = returneditor's notes: Today, unrequited is used much more commonly than forms of requite. You'll probably learn unrequited first. The prefix "un-" means not, so when it's not there, the meaning of unrequited is reversed. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
- She never battled with the public, but submitted uncomplainingly to its worst usage; she made no claim upon it in requital for what she suffered; she did not weigh upon its sympathies.
Chpt 13
- None so ready as she to give of her little substance to every demand of poverty, even though the bitter-hearted pauper threw back a gibe in requital of the food brought regularly to his door, or the garments wrought for him by the fingers that could have embroidered a monarch's robe.
Chpt 13
- …other return than the waywardness of an April breeze, which spends its time in airy sport, and has its gusts of inexplicable passion, and is petulant in its best of moods, and chills oftener than caresses you, when you take it to your bosom; in requital of which misdemeanours it will sometimes, of its own vague purpose, kiss your cheek with a kind of doubtful tenderness, and play gently with your hair, and then be gone about its other idle business, leaving a dreamy pleasure at your…
Chpt 15
- I thank you, and can but requite your good deeds with my prayers.
Chpt 20 *requite = repayeditor's notes: Today this word is more commonly seen with the prefix un- in the form unrequired especially with regard to unreturned love. But this book uses the unprefixed word 9 times to refer to giving something in return for something received.
- Whenever Pearl saw anything to excite her ever active and wandering curiosity, she flew thitherward, and, as we might say, seized upon that man or thing as her own property, so far as she desired it, but without yielding the minutest degree of control over her motions in requital.
Chpt 22requital = returneditor's notes: Today, unrequited is used much more commonly than forms of requite. You'll probably learn unrequited first. The prefix "un-" means not, so when it's not there, the meaning of unrequited is reversed. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
Definition:
-
(unrequited) not returned (typically of feelings -- as in unrequited love)