to fight fire with fire
10
5.3
- idiom
- Informal
:
pagar con la misma moneda
- Sometimes, you must fight fire with fire when dealing with aggressive competitors.
But it's I don't know that it's helpful to fight fire with fire.
- But it's I don't know that it's helpful to fight fire with fire.
- And however, and this is what people don't realise, sometimes you've got to fight fire with fire.
- She has a lovely little essay on pleasure and guilt in which she says basically you got to fight fire with fire.
- And, and that's, that's kind of why I, I sat there and I was like, you don't, you don't fight fire with fire.
- He doesn't try to to, you know, you know, fight fire with fire or, or you win more more things with honey than with vinegar.
Examples
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I have a marketing background, and we need to fight fire with fire.
Blog text (21) -
Sometimes it does make sense to fight fire with fire, and other times it does not.
Blog text (14) -
See, out there... I gotta fight fire with fire.
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The natural step then is to fight fire with fire.
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We have to fight fire with fire.
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Perhaps, we should fight fire with fire.
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Sir, we fight fire with fire.
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- Sometimes, one must fight fire with fire.
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You fight fire with fire.
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We fight fire with fire.
Synonyms
188
3.3
Resist an attack or criticism by responding
How Aggressive
220
5.5
- Informal
10
5.3
34
4.9
∞
1.0
∞
1.4
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase literally combines 'fight' + 'fire' + 'with' + 'fire', so a learner can see the idea of using fire as the means to fight fire, which points to the notion of responding with the same force or method. However, this is a metaphorical extension (using 'fire' to mean aggressive methods) and functions idiomatically to mean 'use the opponent's methods against them', so the exact pragmatic sense is not fully predictable without exposure; cross-linguistic parallels help but do not make it fully transparent.
Etymology
The phrase fight fire with fire comes from a simple, literal idea: when a big wildfire is coming, people sometimes burn a small area on purpose so the big fire has nothing to burn. So they literally fight a fire by starting another fire, and the phrase now means 'to use the same harsh method as your opponent'.