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recoup

UK/ɹɪˈkuːp/US/ɹɪˈkup/
verbC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #12,531 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: recouped, recouping, recoups

To recoup is to get back money or losses. Recoup the costs, recoup the investment, recoup your losses.

It is nearly always about money and nearly always about getting back to where you started rather than gaining. The French behind it means to cut back, from the sense of deducting a sum.

Definitions of recoup

  1. 1verbrecoupTo get back money or losses.C1

    “The film was so popular that the studio recouped its costs in the first weekend.”

recoup is a recovering.

Where it comes from

French recouper means to cut back, from re- plus couper, to cut.

  1. French

    recouper — cut short

  2. English, today

    recoup

From French recouper (“cut short”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

recoup in the wild

  • Both were designed with government subsidies and did not recoup development costs.

    Supersonic business jet

  • The crew's boat was sold to a rowing club to recoup costs, and ended up in splinters after a road crash.

    Dick Joyce (rower)

  • The crew's winning boat was sold to a rowing club to recoup costs, and ended in splinters after a road crash.

    Ross Collinge

  • Combined with the cash rebate, this means that productions may recoup up to 56%.

    Cinema of Jordan

  • Spy Sorge achieved only modest critical success and failed to recoup its budget at the box office.

    Spy Sorge

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.