noun the act or principle of compensating.
2. compensation ·noun a recompense or reward for some loss or service.
3. compensation ·noun the extinction of debts of which two persons are reciprocally debtors by the credits of which they are reciprocally creditors; the payment of a debt by a credit of equal amount; a set-off.
4. compensation ·noun an equivalent stipulated for in contracts for the sale of real estate, in which it is customary to provide that errors in description, ·etc., shall not avoid, but shall be the subject of compensation.
5. compensation ·noun that which constitutes, or is regarded as, an equivalent; that which makes good the lack or variation of something else; that which compensates for loss or privation; amends; remuneration; recompense.