Com`pen*sa"tion (?), n. [L.
compensatio a weighing, a balancing of accounts.]
1. The act or principle of
compensating. Emerson.
2. 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.
The parliament which dissolved the monastic
foundations . . . vouchsafed not a word toward securing the
slightest compensation to the dispossessed owners.
Hallam.
No pecuniary compensation can possibly
reward them.
Burke.
3. (Law) (a)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.
Bouvier. Wharton. (b) A
recompense or reward for some loss or service.
(c) 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.
Compensation balance, or
Compensated balance, a kind of balance
wheel for a timepiece. The rim is usually made of two different
metals having different expansibility under changes of
temperature, so arranged as to counteract each other and preserve
uniformity of movement. -- Compensation
pendulum. See Pendulum.
Syn. -- Recompense; reward; indemnification;
consideration; requital; satisfaction; set-off.