fight fire with fire

Idioms  

1. Combat an evil or negative circumstances by reacting in kind. For example, When the opposition began a smear campaign, we decided to fight fire with fire. Although ancient writers from Plato to Erasmus cautioned that one should not add fire to fire, this warning is not incorporated in the idiom, which was first recorded in Shakespeare's Coriolanus.

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Example Sentences

To counter such misuse, he says, authorities will need to fight fire with fire, developing AI models that detect crime by auditing users’ tax returns, for example.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 9, 2026

And he’s betting the house on his deep-blue state’s willingness to fight fire with fire.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 17, 2025

Far more important, however, the “between jobs” army began to fight fire with fire.

From Salon • Jul. 28, 2024

You have to be able to fight fire with fire.

From Seattle Times • Jan. 16, 2024

The rest of her seemed unalive, like a pale wax model of my mother: the woman who could not fight fire with fire, even to save her children.

From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver