[ad. L. compensātiōn-em (or F. compensation, 16th c. in Littré), n. of action f. compensāre: see COMPENSATE.]
1. The action of compensating, or condition of being compensated; counterbalance, rendering of an equivalent, requital, recompense.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), VIII. 211. His sustres þat were his heyres hadde oþer londes þerfore in compensacioun.
1597. Bacon, Coulers, viii. Ess. (Arb.), 149. If euill be in the one and comfort in the other, it is a kind of compensation.
1651. W. G., trans. Cowel’s Inst., 218. Obliged to the compensation of what is lost by Roberies.
1813. Sir H. Davy, Agric. Chem. (1814), 359. Some articles capable of becoming manure are introduced in compensation.
1876. Mozley, Univ. Serm., ix. 188. The Spartan idea of human life was one of strict compensation … you must fight for the State if the State is to keep you.
b. Mech. The balance or neutralization of opposing forces.
1789. W. Nicholson, Electr., in Phil. Trans., LXXIX. 283. Whenever a jar is charged, the greatest part of the electricity becomes latent on account of the compensation.
1831. Brewster, Optics, xxiii. 204. The … axes along which there is no double refraction or polarisation … have been called … axes of compensation. Ibid. (1837), Magnetism, 354. A more perfect compensation in the action of two needles.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., 600/2. Adjustment of the screws … rendering this compensation a tedious … operation.
c. Med. (See quot. 1882.)
1866. A. Flint, Princ. Med. (1880), 334. The stage of compensation … may last for years.
1882. Syd. Soc. Lex., Compensation … those conditions by which the effects of congenital or acquired disease are warded off. It may be observed in cases of cardiac or hepatic disease.
2. That which is given in recompense, an equivalent rendered, remuneration, amends.
1610. Shaks., Temp., IV. i. 2. If I haue too austerely punish’d you, Your compensation makes amends.
1776. Adam Smith, W. N., I. I. vi. 55. The compensation which the borrower pays to the lender.
1845. S. Austin, Ranke’s Hist. Ref., II. 505. They accepted compensation in money or in kind.
1878. Browning, La Saisiaz, 59. Pains with sorry compensations.
b. Amends or recompense for loss or damage.
1804. Earl Lauderd., Publ. Wealth (1819), 152. A proprietor … entitled to a compensation for what his capital would have produced him.
1850. Robertson, Serm., Ser. III. ii. (1872), 27. Men think that heaven is to be a compensation for earthly loss.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. xviii. 130. Determined to make us some compensation for the loss.
Mod. He has sued the Railway Company for compensation. They will receive compensation for disturbance.
c. Civil Law. (See quot.)
1848. Wharton, Law Lex., Compensation … a sort of right by set-off, whereby a person who has been sued for a debt, demands that the debt may be compensated with what is owing to him by the creditor, which, in that case, is equivalent to payment.
3. attrib. and Comb., as compensation act, water, etc.; compensation-balance, -pendulum, in a chronometer, a balance-wheel or a pendulum having arrangements that neutralize the effect of the expansion or contraction of the metal under variations of temperature; compensation-curb, -stud, etc., parts of such mechanism; compensation-bar, -strip, a bar of two or more metals of different expansibilities, the expansions of which neutralize each other’s effect.
1882. (title) Commonable Rights *Compensation Act.
1805. Hardy, in Trans. Soc. Arts, XXIII. 378. We have at present two *compensation balances.
1848. Brande, Dict. Sc. (N. York), 117. That which is most generally adopted is the expansion or compensation-balance.
1874. Knight, Dict. Mech., 600/1. Compensation Balance … invented by Harrison, of Foulby, England, who devoted himself for a long series of years—1728–1761—to the discovery.
1884. F. J. Britten, Watch & Clockm., 66. The *compensation curb was invented by Harrison, but … it is never used now.
1888. Daily News, 30 Nov., 2/1. The water passing through the masonry in a twenty-inch pipe, and into a *compensation house, where … the millions of gallons that have to escape can be measured to a nicety.
1866. Dickens, Mugby Junction, 28/2. The value of the house had been referred to what was popularly called ‘a compensation jury,’ and the house was called, in consequence, The Compensation House.
1807. Ward, in Trans. Soc. Arts, XXV. 116. I send you a new *compensation pendulum.
c. 1861. Tripplin & Rigg, trans. Saunier’s Mod. Horology, 687. Compensation pendulums … to neutralize the effects of contraction and dilatation due to changes of temperature.
1884. F. J. Britten, Watch & Clockm., 66. With the changes of temperature the *compensation stud moves to and fro.
1889. Pall Mall G., 13 July, 3/1. The bill does not provide for any storage or any *compensation water to be sent down the stream.
