retaliate
verb /rɪˈtælieɪt/
/rɪˈtælieɪt/
[intransitive]Verb Forms
| present simple I / you / we / they retaliate | /rɪˈtælieɪt/ /rɪˈtælieɪt/ |
| he / she / it retaliates | /rɪˈtælieɪts/ /rɪˈtælieɪts/ |
| past simple retaliated | /rɪˈtælieɪtɪd/ /rɪˈtælieɪtɪd/ |
| past participle retaliated | /rɪˈtælieɪtɪd/ /rɪˈtælieɪtɪd/ |
| -ing form retaliating | /rɪˈtælieɪtɪŋ/ /rɪˈtælieɪtɪŋ/ |
- to do something harmful to somebody because they have harmed you first synonym revenge
- retaliate (against somebody/something) to retaliate against an attack
- retaliate (by doing something/with something) The boy hit his sister, who retaliated by kicking him.
Extra Examples- The police were pelted with stones and retaliated with tear gas.
- Ukraine threatened to retaliate by closing oil pipelines.
- The demonstrators retaliated by throwing stones and bricks.
- The police retaliated with tear gas.
- They threatened to retaliate against the British.
Word Originearly 17th cent.: from Latin retaliat- ‘returned in kind’, from the verb retaliare, from re- ‘back’ + talis ‘such’.