VENGEANCE, noun venj'ance. [Latin vindico.]

The infliction of pain on another, in return for an injury or offense. Such infliction, when it proceeds from malice or more resentment, and is not necessary for the purposes of justice, is revenge, and a most heinous crime. When such infliction proceeds from a mere love of justice, and the necessity of punishing offenders for the support of the laws, it is vengeance and is warrantable and just. In this case, vengeance is a just retribution, recompense or punishment. In this latter sense the word is used in Scripture, and frequently applied to the punishments inflicted by God on sinners.

To me belongeth vengeance and recompense. Deuteronomy 32:35.

The Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries. Nahum 1.

With a vengeance in familiar language, signifies with great violence or vehemence; as, to strike one with a vengeance

Formerly, what a vengeance was a phrase used for what emphatical.

But what a vengeance makes thee fly?