comeuppance
Deserved bad outcome
Comeuppance is a deserved punishment or misfortune that befalls someone who has behaved badly.
The word carries a sense of poetic justice—the idea that wrongdoers eventually face consequences for their actions.
After years of cheating investors, the CEO finally got his comeuppance when he was arrested.
It's almost always used with "get" or "have" and appears most often when the speaker takes satisfaction in someone's downfall.
Retaliation for injury
- revengePunishing a wrongdoer
- paybackRetaliation for wrongs
- retaliationPunitive response to injury
- reprisalPunitive action in return
punishment · penalty · redress · settling scores · tit-for-tat · counterblow · reciprocity · requital
Earned fair outcome
- desertsAbandons or barren lands
- duesRegular membership payments
- reckoningSettlement of accounts
- judgmentReasoned decision-making capacity
fate · doom · recompense · requital · poetic justice · karmic justice · divine justice · nemesis
Predetermined course of events
- destinyPredetermined course of events
- cosmic justiceUniverse enforcing moral balance
- balanceSteadiness or amount owed
- cause and effectHow events produce results
karmic debt · karmic justice · what goes around · universal law · moral order · divine order · cosmic balance · spiritual reckoning
Results following an event
- resultWhat follows a cause
- outcomeFinal result of events
- effectResult of a cause
- repercussionIndirect result of action
fallout · backlash · blowback · ramification · upshot · aftereffect · chain reaction · boomerang effect
vengeance
Retaliation for injury
- revengePunishing a wrongdoer
- paybackRetaliation for wrongs
- retaliationPunitive response to injury
reprisal · punishment · penalty · redress · settling scores · tit-for-tat · counterblow · reciprocity · requital · getting even
just desserts
Earned fair outcome
judgment · fate · doom · recompense · requital · poetic justice · karmic justice · divine justice · nemesis · day of reckoning
fate
Predetermined course of events
- destinyPredetermined course of events
- cosmic justiceUniverse enforcing moral balance
- balanceSteadiness or amount owed
cause and effect · karmic debt · karmic justice · what goes around · universal law · moral order · divine order · cosmic balance · spiritual reckoning · wheel of fortune
aftermath
Results following an event
repercussion · fallout · backlash · blowback · ramification · upshot · aftereffect · chain reaction · boomerang effect · natural consequence
- cautionary talesIcarus, Prometheus, Faust, Dr. Faustus, Pandora
- turn the tablesrevenge, payback, comeback, retaliation, counterattack
- karmagood deeds, poetic justice, karmic debt, karmic cycle, karmic cycles
- ironic twiststwist of fate, poetic justice, dramatic irony, situational irony, tragic irony
- poetic justicepoetic justice, just desserts, karmic retribution, justice served, divine justice
- Schadenfreudeserves you right, boo hoo, world's smallest violin, cry me a river, just desserts
comeuppancereward
Payment for service
recognition · accolade · commendation · prize · honor
comeuppanceimpunity
Freedom from consequences
getting away with it · escape · pardon · amnesty · forgiveness