The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Compensate \Com"pen*sate\ (? or ?; 277), v. t. [imp. & p. p.
   Compensated; p. pr. & vb. n. Compensating.] [L.
   compensatus, p. p. of compensare, prop., to weigh several
   things with one another, to balance with one another, verb
   intens. fr. compendere. See Compendium.]
   1. To make equal return to; to remunerate; to recompense; to
      give an equivalent to; to requite suitably; as, to
      compensate a laborer for his work, or a merchant for his
      losses.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. To be equivalent in value or effect to; to counterbalance;
      to make up for; to make amends for.
      [1913 Webster]

            The length of the night and the dews thereof do
            compensate the heat of the day.       --Bacon.
      [1913 Webster]

            The pleasures of life do not compensate the
            miseries.                             --Prior.

   Syn: To recompense; remunerate; indemnify; reward; requite;
        counterbalance.
        [1913 Webster]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

67 Moby Thesaurus words for "compensating":
   adversative, adverse, adversive, amendatory, antagonistic, anti,
   antipathetic, antithetic, antonymous, at cross-purposes, balancing,
   clashing, compensative, compensatory, conflicting, confronting,
   contradictory, contradistinct, contrapositive, contrarious,
   contrary, contrasted, converse, counter, counteracting,
   counteractive, counterbalancing, counterpoised, countervailing,
   dead against, discordant, discrepant, expiatory,
   eyeball to eyeball, hostile, inconsistent, indemnificatory,
   inimical, inverse, lucrative, moneymaking, obverse, offsetting,
   opposed, opposing, opposite, oppositional, oppositive, oppugnant,
   paying, penitential, perverse, profitable, recompensive,
   rectifying, remunerative, reparative, repaying, repugnant,
   retaliatory, retributive, retributory, reverse, rewardful,
   rewarding, satisfying, squared off