retaliate

English

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Latin retaliatus, past participle of retaliare (“to requite, retaliate”), from re (“back, again”) + talis (“such”).

Verb

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.
   • Sir T. Herbert

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

   • Jonathan Swift

     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: please add this translation if you can
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 報復／报复 (zh) (bàofù), 报复 (zh) (bàofu)

• Czech: oplatit pf, oplácet impf, odplatit pf, odplácet impf, pomstít pf, mstít se impf
• Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: kostaa (fi), vastata samalla mitalla
• French: riposter (fr)
• Georgian: სამაგიეროს გადახდა (samagieros gadaxda)
• German: Vergeltung üben, sich rächen
• Hebrew: please add this translation if you can
• Hungarian: megbosszul (hu), elégtételt vesz (hu), bosszút áll (hu), megtorol (hu)
• Icelandic: svara í sömu mynt, hefna sín, gjalda líku líkt
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Ido: revanchar (io)
• Italian: reagire, rivalersi , vendicarsi
• Japanese: please add this translation if you can
• Latin: retalio
• Khmer: please add this translation if you can
• Korean: please add this translation if you can
• Maori: rautupu, rautipu
• Mongolian: please add this translation if you can
• Portuguese: retaliar (pt)
• Russian: мстить (ru) impf (mstitʹ), отомсти́ть (ru) pf (otomstítʹ)
• Spanish: represaliar (es)
• Swedish: vedergälla (sv)
• Thai: please add this translation if you can
• Turkish: 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