Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Vengeance

Venge′ance (·ans), n. [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.]

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.