Definition of "compensation"

compensation

/ˌkɒm.pənˈseɪ.ʃən/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural compensations
1. The act or principle of compensating.
  Quotations
  Human labor, through all its forms, from the sharpening of a stake to the construction of a city or an epic, is one immense illustration of the perfect compensation of the universe.
  1841, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Compensation”, in Essays
2. Something which is regarded as an equivalent; something which compensates for loss.
  Quotations
  The parliament which dissolved the monastic foundations […] vouchsafed not a word toward securing the slightest compensation to the dispossessed owners.
  1827, Henry Hallam, The Constitutional History of England from the Accession of Henry VII. to the Death of George II. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I or II), London: John Murray, […]
  No pecuniary compensation can possibly reward them.
  1796, Edmund Burke, A Letter from the Right Honourable Edmund Burke to a Noble Lord, on the Attacks Made upon Him and His Pension
3. (finance) 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.
4. A recompense or reward for service.
5. (real estate) 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.
6. The relationship between air temperature outside a building and a calculated target temperature for provision of air or water to contained rooms or spaces for the purpose of efficient heating. In building control systems, the compensation curve is defined to a compensator for this purpose.
7. (neuroscience) The ability of one part of the brain to overfunction in order to take over the function of a damaged part (e.g. following a stroke).