restitution

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The act of restoring to the rightful owner something that has been taken away, lost, or surrendered. See Synonyms at reparation.
2. n. The act of making good or compensating for loss, damage, or injury; indemnification.
3. n. A return to or restoration of a previous state or position.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The act of returning or restoring what has been lost or taken away: the restoring to a person of some thing or right of which he has been deprived: as, the restitution of ancient rights to the crown.
2. n. The act of making good or of giving an equivalent for any loss, damage, or injury; indemnification.
3. n. The putting of things back to their former relative positions.
4. n. In law: The putting of a person in possession of lands or tenements of which he had been unlawfully disseized.
5. n. The restoration of what a party had gained by a judgment or order, upon the reversal of such adjudication by appeal or writ of error.
6. n. In theology, the restoration of the kingdom of God, embracing the elevation, not only of all his sinful creatures, but also of all the physical creation, to a state of perfection. See apocatastasis.
7. n. =Syn. 1–3. Restoration, return.
8. n. In biology, the replacement of a lost tissue or organ, or the substitution for it of a different one: a term applied especially to the processes set up by a plant or other organism owing to the loss of a tissue or organ.

Wiktionary

1. n. law A process of compensation for losses.
2. n. The act of making good or compensating for loss or injury.
3. n. A return or restoration to a previous condition or position.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The act of restoring anything to its rightful owner, or of making good, or of giving an equivalent for any loss, damage, or injury; indemnification.
2. n. That which is offered or given in return for what has been lost, injured, or destroved; compensation.
3. n. (Physics) The act of returning to, or recovering, a former state.
4. n. (Med.) The movement of rotetion which usually occurs in childbirth after the head has been delivered, and which causes the latter to point towards the side to which it was directed at the beginning of labor.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. getting something back again
2. n. the act of restoring something to its original state
3. n. a sum of money paid in compensation for loss or injury