tit for tat

American  

noun

1. with an equivalent given in retaliation, as a blow for a blow, repartee, etc..

   He answered their insults tit for tat.

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tit for tat British  

noun

1. an equivalent given in return or retaliation; blow for blow

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tit for tat Cultural  

1. Giving back exactly what one receives: “If you hit me, I'll do the same to you; it's tit for tat.”

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tit for tat Idioms  

1. Repayment in kind, retaliation, as in If he won't help with the beach clean-up, I won't run a booth at the bake sale; that's tit for tat. This term is believed to be a corruption of tip for tap, which meant “a blow for a blow.” Its current form dates from the mid-1500s.

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Etymology

Origin of tit for tat

First recorded in 1550–60; perhaps variant of earlier tip for tap

Example Sentences

Tit for tat is the coin of the congressional realm.

From New York Times • Aug. 8, 2023

Tit for tat, social theorists from Jacques Derrida to Bruno Latour and Donna Haraway have leaned on immunological imagery and concepts in theorizing the self in society.

From Nature • Oct. 7, 2019

When the Hays office objected to a Buetel line, "You borrowed from me; now I borrowed your gal," Hughes changed the line to "Tit for tat."

From Time Magazine Archive

Tit for tat is logic all the world over.

From A Budget of Paradoxes, Volume II by Smith, David Eugene

Tit for tat; Prussia had already disposed of Old BILL.

From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 156, January 22, 1919 by Various