rewards

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of reward.

   The grateful villagers handed out rewards to everyone who helped fight the fire.

   Top performers earned cash rewards at the end of the season.

   Note

   One spelling serves two words: this plural noun and the present-tense verb (she rewards loyalty). As a noun, the plural covers every shade of the singular: payments for a deed, a prize offered for a particular deed or catch, and, less obviously, the results of an action, whether good or bad. Rewards, in that last use, need not be pleasant. The plural is regular and takes no apostrophe.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of reward.

   The company rewards long-serving employees with extra vacation days.

   Nature rewards patience, as any gardener will tell you.

   Note

   Every use of this verb takes an object. The object can be the person (rewards her staff) or the deed (rewards hard work), and the subject need not be a person at all: a view that rewards the climb is the "recompense" use. An older pattern, with the prize itself as the object, is obsolete. Modern English names the prize with "with" instead: rewards them with a bonus.

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