fight fire with fire

English

Etymology

Refers to the practice of starting back fires to prevent the uncontrolled spread of wildfires.

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

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Verb

fight fire with fire

1. (idiomatic) To respond to an attack with a similar or identical counter-attack (e.g. to respond to gunfire with reciprocal gunfire).

Translations

idiomatic

• Amharic: እሳት ጋር እሳት ለመዋጋት (ʾəsat gar ʾəsat lämäwagat)
• Bulgarian: клин клин изби́ва (klin klin izbíva)
• Catalan: combatre el foc amb foc
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 以火攻火 (yǐhuǒgōnghuǒ), 以毒攻毒 (zh) (yǐdúgōngdú)

• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Dutch: vuur met vuur bestrijden
• Finnish: taistella tulella tulta vastaan
• French: combattre le mal par le mal, combattre le feu par le feu
• Hindi: विरोधपूर्ण तरीका इस्तेमाल करना (virodhpūrṇ tarīkā istemāl karnā)
• Icelandic: berjast eld með eldi
• Italian: combattere alla pari, combattere ad armi pari
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Norwegian: bekjempe ild med ild
• Portuguese: combater fogo com fogo
• Romanian: a scoate cuiul cu cui, a răspunde la foc cu foc
• Russian: клин кли́ном вышиба́ют (klin klínom vyšibájut) (they remove a wedge with a wedge)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: кли̏н се кли̏ном ѝзбӣја̄

  Roman: klȉn se klȉnom ìzbījā

• Spanish: combatir el fuego con fuego
• Swedish: ont skall med ont fördrivas
• Turkish: ateşe ateşle karşılık vermek
• Urdu: مخالفت مکمل طریقہ استعمال کرنا (muxālifat mukamil tarīqā istemāl karnā)
• Vietnamese: lấy độc trị độc, dĩ độc trị độc