Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To return like for like, especially evil for evil.
- v. To pay back (an injury) in kind.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To return in kind; repay or requite by an act of the same kind: now seldom or never used except in the sense of returning evil for evil: as, to retaliate injuries.
- To return like for like; especially (now usually), to return evil for evil.
- Synonyms See revenge, n.
Wiktionary
- v. To do something harmful or negative to get revenge for some harm; to fight back or respond in kind to an injury or affront.
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To return the like for; to repay or requite by an act of the same kind; to return evil for (evil). [Now seldom used except in a bad sense.]
- v. To return like for like; specifically, to return evil for evil.
WordNet 3.0
- v. take revenge for a perceived wrong
- v. make a counterattack and return like for like, especially evil for evil
Etymologies
- From Latin retaliatus, past participle of retaliare ("to requite, retaliate"), from re ("back, again") + talis ("such"). (Wiktionary)
- Late Latin retāliāre, retāliāt- : Latin re-, re- + Latin tāliō, punishment in kind; see telə- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“However, attempting to retaliate is either futile or dangerous ethically due to c.”
“Dorian Warren " Boeing is Wrong, the NLRB Is Right ," Letters, May 11 use a definition of "retaliate" that my dictionary doesn't have.”
The Wall Street Journal: Boeing's Action Isn't Retaliation at All
“If one person defects, harming the environment and thus the interests of others, then a common way for fellow players to retaliate is to defect as well.”
“If you look into how baseball works, it looked like ... maybe he thought the way to retaliate is to throw and protect his guys.”
“If the French shoot themselves in the foot, there is no reason for us to "retaliate" by shooting ourselves in the foot.”
Trade War?, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
“Now we're into a subtlety of the baseball code: Did Morgan "retaliate" by stealing the bases?”
“In a speech introducing his formal trade strategy Tuesday, Mr. De Gucht said the EU would use its leverage as the world ' s largest economic bloc to " retaliate " against countries with closed public-contracts markets.”
The Wall Street Journal: EU Seeks to Crack Bidding In Beijing
“North Korea has told a visiting American politician that it would allow international inspectors to visit a newly unveiled uranium-enrichment facility and announced Monday that it would not "retaliate" against South Korea for conducting military exercises - gestures that seemed intended to calm tensions on the Korean Peninsula, at least for the time being.”
The Washington Post: North Korea makes some gestures toward calm
“Hillary said she would "retaliate" (after finding out who was responsible) and got great accolades.”
“I liked how he identified a plan of action rather than a knee jerk 'retaliate' response to the question about the US being attacked.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘retaliate’.
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EN - fine scholarly language
exhort, accretion, twenty-nine, atrophy, additive, brilliantly, interreligious, empiricism, pathologic, limitless, half-century, vigilant and 488 more...
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Do That Again! ~~ "Re-verbs"
List of verbs that begin with re-, meaning to repeat a specific action or process - reappraise, for example.
I'm also looking for words like repeat, replenish and rescind whose roots d...repeat, rescind, reappraise, refinish, restripe, reapply, resupply, refurbish, reposition, reoffend, redistribute, recoat and 202 more...
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aykut gre
mossy, intrusive, mettlesome, soliloquy, mocking, dissembler, prevarication, histrionics, aphorism, distinction, concise, pensive and 61 more...
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Personal Vocabulary List
All my favourite words that I come across!
veritable, incongruence, rigamorole, letcherous, revolting, repulsive, reputrid, rapatious, forays, guise, placate, paradigm and 1162 more...
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From Book - SAT & College Dictionary ...
ebb, exotic, immure, abeyance, panegyric, debonair, protege, dissipate, frantic, penitent, abject, edify and 871 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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ash
ash
abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abide, abject, abjure and 4874 more...
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_mark's list
Words I like!
( personal list, favorite words, randomness )psy, nanobot, success, smack, vibration, microcosmic, springgraph, marksmanship, estranged, homoerotic, flex, fiasco and 1707 more...
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complicated words
mire, mirth, misapplication, reluctant, aghast, surreptitiously, wares, abashed, leap, dash, peer, tangle and 107 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, R
retinol, rectory, rhubarb, rancor, recension, rood, redivivus, roborate, redound, ripsnorting, ragtag, recruit and 250 more...
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bearing words
talent, tolerate, telamon, toll, philately, talion, retaliate, tantalize, atlantic, atlas, ablative, allative and 44 more...
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List 008
dearth, incorporate, animosity, whimsical, traumatic, ominous, dubious, surreptitious, abode, adherence, idle, quixotic and 16 more...
Tweets
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