respond

Formsresponds, responding, responded

Pluralresponds

1. 1
   verbtransitive or intransitive

   To say something in return; to answer or reply to a person, question, or message.

   Reporters shouted questions, but the senator did not respond.

   Asked whether the deal was final, she responded that negotiations were still open.

   Similarreply, answer, retort, counter

   Note

   The core sense came into English as Middle English respounden, through Old French respondre, from Latin respondeō; French still has it as répondre. It works in two frames. Used intransitively, it takes to: you respond to a question, an argument or a letter. Used transitively, its object is the words themselves, usually a that-clause: she responded that talks were still open.

2. 2
   verbintransitive

   To act in reaction to an event, force, or stimulus; to do something in response.

   Emergency crews responded within minutes of the first call.

   Plants respond to sunlight by turning their leaves toward it.

   Similarreact

   Note

   Action rather than words: a body, a crew or an ecosystem responds when it does something because something was done to it. It is a working word in science. Robert M. Pringle, writing in American Scientist in 2012, sums up ecology as tinkering with nature and quantifying how it responds. The verb takes no object, so the cause comes in with to: respond to treatment, respond to light.

3. 3
   verbtransitive or intransitive

   To correspond with something; to suit it or be in keeping with it.

   The smaller arches respond to the great central arch above the entrance.

   The garden's formal layout responded to the symmetry of the house itself.

   Similarcorrespond, echo, mirror, match, answer

   Note

   Here responding means matching, the way words match deeds or one part of a design matches another. Edward Fairfax's 1600 translation of Tasso gives a fine instance: "For his great deeds respond his speeches great," with the subject held back until after the verb. The verb can stand alone, as it does there, or take what it matches. Correspond and suit are its plain equivalents.

4. 4
   verbintransitive

   To be legally liable for a payment; to be answerable for money owed.

   Under the agreement, the guarantor must respond for any unpaid balance.

   The shipping firm responded in damages for the cargo lost at sea.

   Similaranswer

5. 5
   nouncountable

   A versicle or short anthem chanted at intervals while a lection is read during a church service.

   The cantor intoned the respond, and the congregation took up the refrain.

   Medieval manuscripts preserve dozens of responds composed for the night office.

   Similarresponsory, response

6. 6
   nouncountable

   A pilaster, half-pillar, or similar element set into a wall to carry the impost of an arch.

   At the end of the arcade, the final arch springs from a respond rather than a freestanding column.

   The masons carved the responds to match the piers of the nave.

   Similarpilaster

   Note

   What makes something a respond is its job, not its shape. A half-pillar, a pilaster or any equivalent device qualifies, as long as it is engaged and receives the impost. Engaged means built into the wall rather than standing free. The impost is the block or course from which the arch springs. The name fits the sense of matching, because a respond answers the free-standing piers it partners.

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