Rebate

How to spell rebate

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce rebate

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does rebate mean?

1. nounA partial refund or a deduction given back on money already paid, often as an incentive.
2. verbTo give back part of a payment as a deduction or refund.

Rebate in a sentence

• noun

  The manufacturer offered a generous rebate on every new appliance.

• verb

  The store agreed to rebate part of the deposit after the delay.

• noun

  He claimed a tax rebate after overpaying for the year.

• verb

  The council will rebate a portion of the fee for early payment.

Where does rebate come from?

Language of origin: French

Rebate came into English in the late 1300s from the Old French rabattre, meaning 'to beat down' or 'to reduce', which was formed from re- (here an intensifier) plus abattre 'to beat down', the same verb that gives us 'abate'. The literal idea was of knocking a price or an amount lower, and from that physical sense of beating something down grew the modern financial meaning of a deduction or a partial return of money. By the time it settled into English commerce it described money handed back or knocked off a sum already paid. A separate but related carpentry sense, a step-shaped recess cut along the edge of a board, comes from the same root idea of cutting or beating something back, and that woodworking sense is sometimes spelled 'rabbet'. The single 'b' is the usual spelling trap, since the beaten-down origin can tempt writers to expect a doubled consonant.

How the word is built

• re- (back)
• bate (to beat down/reduce, from Old French abattre)