tit for tat
with an equivalent given in retaliation, as a blow for a blow, repartee, etc.: He answered their insults tit for tat.
Origin of tit for tat
1Words Nearby tit for tat
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use tit for tat in a sentence
Given the potential for a cyber tit-for-tat to escalate, Obama has even more incentive to find a diplomatic solution.
Obama Could Hit China to Punish North Korea | Shane Harris, Tim Mak | December 20, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTOther feminist sites have championed objectifying men in tit-for-tat fashion as empowering women.
Full Frontal Disney: Feminism's Nudity Double Standard | Emily Shire | August 20, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTThis series of tit-for-tat bombings has created the most violent and volatile dynamic in Lebanon since the end of the civil war.
Is Syria Being 'Lebanized' or is Lebanon Being 'Syrianized'? | Hussein Ibish | August 29, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTBut the brewing scandal is about more than political tit-for-tat.
An argument over money provokes tit-for-tat hostage-takings between guerrilla commanders.
It requires some study to make out who is the speaker in the tit-for-tat of the dialogue.
Unwritten Literature of Hawaii | Nathaniel Bright EmersonMr. Stanges play was an amusing comedy, dealing with domestic infelicityof the tit-for-tat orderin the old style.
Ainslee's, Vol. 15, No. 6, July 1905 | VariousIt was therefore but tit-for-tat when Minos sent Athenian tributary boys and girls to fight his bull, the bullheaded Minotaur.
The World of Homer | Andrew LangWas she saying to herself that this was tit-for-tat; a riposte for his "Sibyl" of their talk in the morning?
It Never Can Happen Again | William De MorganHe had declared war against Bence; henceforth, he vowed, the tit-for-tat policy should be pursued with implacable thoroughness.
Mrs. Thompson | William Babington Maxwell
British Dictionary definitions for tit for tat
an equivalent given in return or retaliation; blow for blow
Origin of tit for tat
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Cultural definitions for tit for tat
Giving back exactly what one receives: “If you hit me, I'll do the same to you; it's tit for tat.”
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Other Idioms and Phrases with tit for tat
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.
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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