Guerdon
noun, verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A reward, prize or recompense for a service; an accolade. literary
"For would she of her gentlenesse, Withouten more, me ones kesse, It were to me a great guerdoon. Release of all my passion […]"
- 2 a reward or payment wordnet
- 1 To give such a reward to. transitive
"And when thou see'st the Admiral ride by, Discharge thy musket, and perform his death; And then I'll guerdon thee with store of crowns."
Example
More examples""The gods, if gods the good and just regard, / and thy own conscience, that approves the right, / grant thee due guerdon and a fit reward.""
Etymology
From Middle English guerdon, guerdoun, gardone, from Old French guerdon, guerredon, guarredon, werdon, from Medieval Latin widerdōnum, alteration of widerlōnum, from West Germanic (whence Old High German widarlōn, Old English wiþerlēan), literally ‘back-payment’, with the second element assimilated to Latin dōnum (“gift”).
More for "guerdon"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.