retaliate

retaliate

English

Etymology

From Latin retaliātus, past participle of retaliō (“to requite, retaliate”), from re- (“back, again”) + talis (“such”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɹɪˈtæl.i.eɪt/

  • Audio (RP)

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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 Travaile, Begunne Anno 1626. into Afrique and the Greater Asia, […], London: […] William Stansby, and Jacob Bloome, OCLC 869931719:

     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: please add this translation if you can 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 pf, mstít se impf Dutch: vergelden (nl) Esperanto: please add this translation if you can Estonian: please add this translation if you can Estonian: please add this translation if you can Finnish: kostaa (fi), vastata samalla mitalla French: riposter (fr) [1] 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, rivalersi [2], vendicarsi Japanese: 仕返し (ja) (しかえする, shikaeshi suru) Latin: retalio Khmer: សងសឹក (km) (sɑɑng sək) Korean: please add this translation if you can 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: please add this translation if you can Russian: мстить (ru) impf (mstitʹ), отомсти́ть (ru) pf (otomstítʹ) Slovak: please add this translation if you can Spanish: represaliar (es) Swedish: vedergälla (sv) Thai: please add this translation if you can Turkish: please add this translation if you can Ukrainian: please add this translation if you can Walloon: si vindjî (wa), si rvindjî

References

1. Le Trésor de la Langue Française informatisé
2. Oxford-Paravia Concise - Dizionario Inglese-Italiano e Italiano-Inglese. Edited by Maria Cristina Bareggi. Torino: Paravia, 2003 (in collaboration with Oxford University Press). ISBN 8839551107. Online version here

Further reading

• retaliate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• retaliate in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911

Anagrams

• aliterate