Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Repayment in kind, as for an injury; retaliation.
Wiktionary
- n. idiomatic equivalent retribution, an eye for an eye, returning exactly what you get.
- n. Cockney rhyming slang hat.
- adj. Having the characteristic of returning bad for bad.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. An equivalent; retaliation.
WordNet 3.0
- n. an equivalent given in return
Etymologies
- Probably alteration of tip for tap. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“I believe that tit for tat is the rule, and that at present it is my turn.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘tit for tat’.
-
fight
words for fighting
( open list, randomness )bout, fight, match, smackdown, blue, stoush, battle, clash, fuss, fray, ruckus, tussle and 115 more...
-
POL - scandalous (words and collocati...
Words and collocations associated with political scandal
blow the whistle, boo, cronyism and rigging, democratic deficit, denigrate, dirty linen, fiasco, finger pointing a..., graft, hidden account, hush money, illicit financing... and 578 more...
-
Reduples
Go for it, brothers and sisters! I personally have been suffering long for lack of an open reduplicatives list
happy clappy, bribble-brabble, diddle-daddle, hugger-mugger, kikiriki, Bora-Bora, mahi-mahi, jingle-jangle, knick-knack paddy..., chit-chat, bon-bon, clapperclaw and 292 more...
-
Words that make you sound old.
Just a fun list of words I am building that make you sound old.
icebox, bread box, touch tone phone, tit for tat, five and dime, groovy, channel changer, film, cassette player, VCR, record, dial tone and 7 more...
-
The Golden Rule
TABLE OF PROPOSED RULES TO LIVE BY
The Golden Rule Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
The Silver Rule Do not do unto others what you would not have them do un...ethics, reciprocity, silver rule, karma, tit for tat, newton's third law, virtue, temperance, fortitude, prudence, justice, humanity and 44 more...
-
Double Trouble
Reduplicatives and more.
splish-splash, hip-hop, kit-kat, dingaling, hugger-mugger, even-steven, tit for tat, higgledy-piggledy, dilly-dally, boogie-woogie, knick-knack, mai tai and 131 more...
-
Tuesday words
just the next words that come along
nasality, transignification, lapsarian, disciple, slanguage, atwitter, avast, ahoy, asleep, awake, hymnody, glissade and 573 more...
-
The Wørd
Trademark of Stephen Colbert and The Colbert Report.
truthiness, bacchanalia, disappointed, love handles, pussy, overrated, perspective, quitter, alito, camilla-mania, cat, shhhh!... and 335 more...
-
oddball
wackadoodlery.
( personal list )
related (from me):
http://www.wordnik.com/lists/onomatopoeias--1
bric-a-brac, succotash, humbucker, skedaddle, scallywag, sassafras, gadzooks, humdinger, hoity-toity, wishy-washy, namby-pamby, ding dong and 441 more...
-
Filed in the "Junk" drawer
Miscellaneous junk I want to deal with mentally at some other time.
drake equation, game theory, prisoner's dilemma, tit for tat, fermi paradox, curry's paradox, logic, mathematics, newton's rings, radian, steradian, dimensionless qua... and 6 more...
-
Three by three
any day now, bet the pot, cha cha cha, cut and run, cut the rug, did the job, dog eat dog, for the win, get the axe, get the nod, hem and haw, hit and run and 15 more...
-
The No-No List
Words I absolutely will not say aloud to people unless I'm sure they know exactly what I'm talking about. Also words that require great diligence in pronunciation, so no one is offended by a slight...
sects, norfolk, dam, niggardly, shih tzu, push it, gaze, retardant, seaman, penal, cummin, frigate and 42 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for tit for tat.

strev how about a nice flower illustration then? Jun 17, 2009