taste of one's own medicine

taste of one's own medicine

English

Alternative forms

• dose of one's own medicine

Pronunciation

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Noun

taste of one's own medicine

1. (idiomatic, usually preceded by a) Harsh treatment inflicted on one who previously inflicted similar or equivalent treatment on others.
   • 1916, Rex Ellingwood Beach, chapter 27, in Rainbow's End:

     "The man's spirit is evil enough to frighten people away and we will drop stones upon him, so that he can learn the taste of his own medicine."

   • 1919, Joseph A. Altsheler, chapter 5, in The Sun Of Quebec:

     The Long Tom in the stern of the schooner opened fire . . . and two men were seen to go down. The captain laughed. "That's a taste of their own medicine," he said.

   • 2001 June 24, Richard Zoglin, "Hey, Wanna Buy Some Pix?," Time:

     Some stars reportedly even want to investigate the private lives of tabloid editors, to give them a taste of their own medicine.

Translations

harsh treatment

Chinese: Mandarin: 以其人之道，還治其人之身 (zh), 以其人之道，还治其人之身 (zh) (yǐ qí rén zhī dào, huán zhì qí rén zhī shēn) (lit. "to pay back with the opponent's own method") Danish: please add this translation if you can Dutch: koekje van eigen deeg Finnish: maistaa omaa lääkettään (verb) French: rendre la pareille (fr) (to give someone a taste of their own medicine), rendre la monnaie de sa pièce (fr) (to give someone a taste of their own medicine), récolter ce que l'on a semé (fr) (to get a taste of one's own medicine) Hungarian: egye meg, amit főzött (literally “let him/her eat, what he/she has cooked”) Spanish: probar de su propia medicina, una dosis de su propia medicina, una cucharada de su propia medicina