retaliate

English

Etymology

From Latin retāliātus, past participle of retāliō (“to requite, retaliate”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈtæl.i.eɪt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Verb

retaliate (third-person singular simple present retaliates, present participle retaliating, simple past and past participle retaliated)

1. (intransitive) To do something harmful or negative to get revenge for some harm; to fight back or respond in kind to an injury or affront.

   John insulted Peter to retaliate for Peter's acid remark earlier.

   Many companies have policies in place to prevent bosses from retaliating against allegations of harassment.

2. (transitive) To repay or requite by an act of the same kind.
   • 1634, T[homas] H[erbert], A Relation of Some Yeares Trauaile, Begunne Anno 1626. into Afrique and the Greater Asia, […], London: […] William Stansby, and Jacob Bloome, →OCLC:

     One ambassador sent word to the duke's son that his visit should be retaliated.

   • 1713-174, Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope, Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus Preface

     It is unlucky to be obliged to retaliate the injuries of authors, whose works are so soon forgotten that we are in danger of appearing the first aggressors.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:avenge

Derived terms

• retaliation
• retaliative
• retaliatory

Translations

do something harmful to get revenge

• Albanian: please add this translation if you can
• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Armenian: հատուցել (hy) (hatucʻel), վրեժ լուծել (vrež lucel)
• Bulgarian: отплащам се (otplaštam se), отмъщавам (bg) (otmǎštavam)
• Catalan: revenjar-se (ca), tornar mal per mal
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 報復／报复 (zh) (bàofu)

• Czech: oplatit pf, oplácet impf, odplatit pf, odplácet impf, pomstít (cs) pf, mstít se impf
• Dutch: vergelden (nl)
• Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
• Estonian: kätte maksma (et)
• Finnish: kostaa (fi), vastata samalla mitalla
• French: riposter (fr), rendre la pareille à quelqu’un, user de représailles, se venger de
• Georgian: სამაგიეროს გადახდა (samagieros gadaxda)
• German: Vergeltung üben, sich rächen
• Hebrew: עשה פעולת תגמול (asá peulát tagmúl), נקם (he) (nakám)
• Hungarian: megbosszul (hu), elégtételt vesz (hu), bosszút áll (hu), megtorol (hu)
• Icelandic: svara í sömu mynt, hefna sín, gjalda líku líkt
• Ido: revanchar (io)
• Italian: reagire (it), rivalersi (it), vendicarsi
• Japanese: 仕返し (ja) (しかえする, shikaeshi suru)
• Khmer: សងសឹក (km) (sɑɑng sək)
• Korean: please add this translation if you can
• Latin: retalio
• Latvian: please add this translation if you can
• Lithuanian: please add this translation if you can
• Malayalam: തിരിച്ചടിക്കുക (ml) (tiriccaṭikkuka)
• Maori: rautupu, rautipu
• Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
• Polish: mścić się m
• Portuguese: retaliar (pt)
• Romanian: riposta (ro), a plăti (cuiva) cu aceeași monedă, a se răzbuna
• Russian: мстить (ru) impf (mstitʹ), отомсти́ть (ru) pf (otomstítʹ)
• Slovak: please add this translation if you can
• Spanish: represaliar (es), tomar represalias, retaliar
• Swedish: vedergälla (sv)
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: misilleme yapmak
• Ukrainian: please add this translation if you can
• Walloon: si vindjî (wa), si rvindjî

Further reading

• “retaliate”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “retaliate”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• aliterate