Refund Meaning
/ɹɪˈfʌnd/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
verbTo return (money) to (someone); to reimburse.
verbTo obtain a refund.
Sentence Examples
I lost my receipt. Can I still get a refund?
Sarah demanded that she be given a refund.
The singer has promised to refund any disappointed fans.
CEFR Practice Quiz
When the product was defective, the customer asked for a full ____ of his money.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The airline offered a full ____ to passengers whose flights had been cancelled due to the strike.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English refunden, refounden, from Old French refondre, refonder, refunder (“to restore; pay back”), from Latin refundere; prefix re- (“re-”) + fundere (“to pour”): compare French refondre, refonder. See fuse (“to melt”), and compare refound (“to cast again”), and refuse.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"A Governor, that had Pillag'd the People, was […] sentenc'd to Refund what he had Wrongfully Taken."
— 1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC:
"Finding us easy in our ways, he […] told me a cock-and-bull story with the moral of another five francs for the narrator. The thing was palpably absurd; but I paid up, and at once dropped all friendliness of manner, and kept him in his place as an inferior with freezing British dignity. He saw in a moment that he had gone too far, and killed a willing horse; his face fell; I am sure he would have refunded if he could only have thought of a decent pretext."
— 1878, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Down the Oise: To Moy”, in An Inland Voyage, London: C[harles] Kegan Paul & Co., […], →OCLC, page 141:
"Were the humours of the eye tinctured with any colour, they would refund that colour upon the object."
— 1691, John Ray, The Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of the Creation. […], London: […] Samuel Smith, […], →OCLC:
"When our mutual trance was a little over, and the young fellow had withdrawn that delicious stretcher, with which he had most plentifully drowned all thoughts of revenge in the sense of actual pleasure, the widen'd wounded passage refunded a stream of pearly liquids, which flowed down my thighs, mixed with streaks of blood"
— 1749, [John Cleland], “(Please specify the letter or volume)”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], London: […] [Thomas Parker] for G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], →OCLC:
"RDG explains: "From April 1 2026, the following tickets, Anytime, Off-Peak, Day Travelcards and most Ranger and Rover tickets, will no longer be refundable on the day they become valid for travel." It calls the £40m it thinks it loses "refund abuse", which it explains as "refunds on tickets that have been used but not scanned or endorsed, where a customer falsely states that they did not travel". I'm sure such abuse takes place (and that it's done by passengers). But RDG is taking a sledgehammer to crack a nut and punishing many millions of honest passengers by making tickets more restrictive."
— 2026 March 18, Philip Haigh, “Tickets please: 2p per scan to offset fraudulent refunds?”, in RAIL, number 1057, page 48:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
When the product was defective, the customer asked for a full ____ of his money.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The airline offered a full ____ to passengers whose flights had been cancelled due to the strike.