repay someone's effort, time, attention, etc.

repay | American Dictionary

repay
verb[ T ]
us/rɪˈpeɪ/past tense and past participlerepaidus/rɪˈpeɪd/
to pay someone money that was borrowed, or to reward (someone):
How can I ever repay you for your kindness?

repayment

noun[ C/U ]us/riˈpeɪ·mənt/
[ U ]They expect repayment of the loan over three years.

repay | Business English

repay
verb[ T ]
uk /ˌriːˈpeɪ/usrepaying | repaid | repaid
FINANCE, BANKING
to pay back money that you have borrowed:
repay a loan/debt/mortgageStudents generally have 10 years to repay their loans.
We were told we would have to repay $32 a month.
Investors should be aware that any tax they save in year one has to be repaid in full.

Examples of repay

repay
The collection - unsur pr isingly, g iven the subject matter - makes for a rather depressing read, but one that certainly repays the effort.
The legislation repays closer study, because the debate around its various parts enshrined many of the attitudes and preconceptions of colonial forest science.
The book makes demands on the reader, but it repays the effort in full measure.
The recipient may avoid this obligation either by refusing the gift or by repaying it immediately.
After consumption takes place, the consumer repays bt to the bank.
The patron thereby signalled his acceptance of a kind of indebtedness, which would then be repaid over time, by something resembling a salary.
During the prosperous years up to 1999, pension fund governors applied serious cuts in the contribution rate or even repaid formerly paid contributions.
An individual bank might want to do that but, when they repaid, some other bank would borrow.
However, the work of following the close textual analysis is amply repaid for those with enough interest in the historiographical issues to make the effort.
When interest rates fall again, the value of bonds rises and the policy holder sells the bonds and repays the loan.
You would have known right off that the debt was never to be repaid ' ' (40).
The following years he voluntarily repaid his creditors' losses and continued his business as before.
In other words, he repaid to his accuser all the costs of his own prosecution.
Table 3 shows that labourers were mainly repaid with loans of capital goods.
Even with this linguistic challenge, the volume more than repays the reader.
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