| 释义 |
retaliation|rɪtælɪˈeɪʃən|
[See retaliate v.1 and -ation.]
1. The action of retaliating; the return of like for like; repayment in kind; requital, reprisal.
1581Lambarde Eiren. i. xii. (1602) 57 The Romanes vsed specially, eight sortes of chastisements,..imprisonment, stripes, retaliation,..and death. 1656Milton Lett. State Wks. 1851 VIII. 370 If intreaty and fair means will nothing avail,..the severity of Retaliation must take its course. 1692Bentley Boyle Lect. i. 29 Contentiousness and Cruelty seldom fail of Retaliation. 1729Butler Serm. Wks. 1874 II. 106 If bare retaliation..always begets resentment in the person upon whom we retaliate, what would that excess do? 1771Junius Lett. lxvii. (1788) 341 The just law of retaliation has at last overtaken the little contemptible tyrant. 1815Elphinstone Acc. Caubul (1842) I. 221 Retaliation thus exercised, of course, leads to new disputes. 1858Froude Hist. Eng. IV. xviii. 9 Where justice could only be executed by crime, each act of violence provoked fresh retaliation. 1872Yeats Growth Comm. 182 They in ‘retaliation’ attacked the Indian colonies.
2. An instance of this; a return or requital:
a. of injuries, etc.
1658Sir T. Browne Hydriot. Introd., Sylla.., who having thus served the Body of Marius could not but fear a Retaliation upon his own. 1683Tryon Way to Health 478 We have caused them to be burned as a Sacrifice or Retaliation. 1776Gibbon Decl. & F. xiii. I. 270 A severe retaliation was inflicted. 1847Mrs. A. Kerr tr. Ranke's Hist. Servia 179 No Servian song commemorates this sanguinary retaliation on the Turks. 1891Rosebery Pitt xi. 187 It does not come within the compass of this narrative to describe that insurrection, its massacres and retaliations.
†b. of kindness or civility. Obs.
c1645Howell Lett. (1650) II. 10, I pray let me injoy it in that fair proportion that I desire to return unto you by way of correspondence and retaliation. 1656S. Holland Zara (1719) 32 note, Meaning a retalliation of Love. 1675Cocker Morals 23 He that receives a Courtesie, remains, Till his Retaliation, bound in Chains. 1700J. A. Astry tr. Saavedra-Faxardo I. 335 'Tis a kind of Avarice to do good in hopes of a Retaliation. 1731–8Swift Polite Conv. Introd. 5, I entertained Four of each Sex at my own Lodgings once a Month, by way of Retaliation.
Hence retaliˈationist, one who advocates retaliation, esp. against tariffs imposed by other countries. Also attrib.
1881Nation (N.Y.) XXXII. 381 If the treaty be not concluded soon the retaliationist cry may become too strong to be resisted. |