tit for tat
12
5.8
- idiom
- /tɪt fɔr tæt/
- Informal
:
toma y daca
- We can go back and forth for hours with tit for tat.
- tit for tat approach
So you can see how this tit for tat game can escalate.
- So you can see how this tit for tat game can escalate.
- And if you cooperate with a tit for tat algorithm, you both benefit completely.
- Love is not a tit for tat.
- And sometimes their betrayal wasn't necessarily tit for tat.
- We could split, but that almost feels like, you know, tit for tat, eye for an eye.
- So what we've got here is sort of a tit for tat, right?
- But there was tit for tat shootings for years and years and numerous murders.
- And I think we're in danger now of sending the message of proportionality or tit for tat.
- The point is a lot of times in marriage we try to make it this equal thing and this tit for tat thing.
- So meaning they're forming relationships based on shared goals or exchanging benefits in a tit for tat manner.
- You know, some men getting into this tit for tat type of thing because they're upset about stuff like that's just unhealthy.
Examples
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The two countries have also been involved in a tit-for-tat trade spat.
Blog text (1) -
Enough of the tit for tat; both parties are in the wrong!
Blog text (25) -
There will more likely result in a tit-for-tat trade war that will hurt US exports.
Blog text (24) -
We could split, but that almost feels like, you know, tit for tat, eye for an eye.
-
The sort of tit-for-tat between historians is not relevant and distracts from policy debate.
Blog text (15) -
Deliberately or not, the world is now caught in a tit for tat game of tariffs.
-
As part of the UK's wider leadership, we will also continue to push for an end to disputes and tit for tat tariffs between trading partners and friends.
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After the company cut salaries, employees responded with a tit for tat action by refusing to work overtime.
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The escalating conflict turned into a tit for tat situation, where each side retaliated against the other.
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In negotiations, it often becomes tit for tat, with each party making concessions only to have them countered.
Synonyms
252
6.8
Punishing someone in return for a wrong done to you
118
5.5
Harming someone to punish them for something they did
112
5.2
Harming someone because they hurt you
87
7.5
Punishment people give because someone did something wrong and others think it is fair
37
8.3
An action that hurts someone in return for an attack
13
5.1
Punishment that gives the same harm back to the person who did the wrong
9
4.2
To harm someone because they hurt you or someone you care about
7
7.4
To try to hurt someone because they hurt you
1
9.5
Giving back a favor or returning harm in the same way
An action taken to hurt or punish someone after an unfriendly act
Antonyms
How Severe
Surface Forms
Morphology
tit + for + tat
The phrase's meaning 'reciprocal retaliation' is idiomatic and cannot be derived from its literal parts: 'tit' and 'tat' are archaic/obscure items (not transparent lexical contributors) and while 'for' signals exchange, it alone doesn't yield the idiomatic sense. As a fixed, reduplicative idiom whose components do not transparently contribute their ordinary meanings, a B1 learner who only knows the constituents would not reliably infer the expression's meaning.
Etymology
The idiom tit for tat comes from an old image of two people trading quick small hits: a tit and then a matching tat. One popular story says this 'blow for blow' picture became a way to talk about returning an action in the same way, so today it means 'an action given in return', often as revenge.