\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.