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 my rule for them varmints; an' we're even with 'em on this arternoon's work.

From The Young Trail Hunters Or, the Wild Riders of the Plains. The Veritable Adventures of Hal Hyde and Ned Brown, on Their Journey Across the Great Plains of the South-West by Cozzens, Samuel Woodworth

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

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