retaliate
- 01 B2 Upper Intermediate
to hurt someone or do something negative to them because they attacked or offended you first.
to return like for like, especially to inflict a counter-injury as a form of revenge or defensive response.
Simple“The army warned that it would retaliate if the border was crossed again.”
In context“The corporation threatened to retaliate against the smaller firm by launching a series of aggressive lawsuits in multiple jurisdictions.”
UsageUsually used as an intransitive verb followed by the preposition 'against' or 'by'.
PitfallHe retaliated his brother for the insult. He retaliated against his brother for the insult.In modern English, this verb is intransitive and requires the preposition 'against' before the person you are targeting.
- 02 C1 Advanced
to respond to an action by doing the same thing back to the other person.
to repay or requite an action with one of the same kind; often used in diplomatic or formal contexts.
Simple“When the country raised taxes on imports, its neighbour decided to retaliate with similar measures.”
In context“Diplomatic protocols often dictate that a government will retaliate in kind when its officials are expelled from a foreign capital.”
UsageOften appears in the phrase 'retaliate in kind'.
Synonymsreciprocaterequite
“Stripping EU citizens of their rights could lead to member states retaliating against the UK.”
“Mundubile said there was “no political language that can sanitise what happened”, but he appealed to his supporters not to retaliate.”
From Latin retāliātus, past participle of retāliō (“to requite, retaliate”).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.