TIT FOR TAT Definition & Meaning

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tit for tat

noun

with an equivalent given in retaliation, as a blow for a blow, repartee, etc..
He answered their insults tit for tat.

tit for tat

noun

an equivalent given in return or retaliation; blow for blow

tit for tat

Giving back exactly what one receives: “If you hit me, I'll do the same to you; it's tit for tat.”

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51�Թ� History and Origins

Origin of tit for tat¹

First recorded in 1550–60; perhaps variant of earlier tip for tap

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51�Թ� History and Origins

Origin of tit for tat¹

C16: from earlier tip for tap

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Idioms and Phrases

Repayment in kind, retaliation, as in If he won't help with the beach clean-up, I won't run a booth at the bake sale; that's tit for tat. This term is believed to be a corruption of tip for tap, which meant “a blow for a blow.” Its current form dates from the mid-1500s.

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

This current tit for tat spat involving the Reform UK leader Farage and the MP for Great Yarmouth, Rupert Lowe, has seen both sides flinging a lot of mud at each other.

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She reeled off a list of villages nearer the border - now deserted and destroyed after the past year of tit for tat exchanges between Hezbollah and Israel.

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Whatever the specifics of this latest tit for tat, there is a more fundamental priority for both sides: deterrence – a more solid certainty that strikes on its own soil will not happen again.

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It’s also worth noting that the other side of today’s allegations – that individual MPs were hacked too – is not uncommon in the tit for tat cyber espionage world.

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It's a tit for tat, following fresh U.S. curbs on chip exports.

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titfer tithable

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