Definition
something that you do to harm someone because they have harmed you
View the full definition in the Macmillan Dictionary
Origin and usage
The noun tit for tat was formed within English from an old meaning of the noun ‘tit’, meaning a light blow, the preposition ‘for’, and the noun ‘tat’, which is ‘tit’ with a different vowel inserted. It was first used in the mid 16th century.
Examples
The informal noun tit for tat was formed by a process called reduplication, where a word or part of a word is repeated exactly or partially; you can read Stan Carey’s post on the process here. An old meaning of tit was a light blow or slap and tat was the same word, but with the vowel changed, so tit for tat is literally a blow for a blow. The expression is first recorded in the works of an English writer called John Heywood who lived through most of the 16th century and whose works included a collection of proverbs. Tit for tat is used as an adjective, when it is often hyphenated, and as an adverb. Tit for tat comes into the Macmillan Thesaurus categories of ‘Revenge’ and ‘Wanting and taking revenge’. You can explore them further by clicking here.
Quotations
“That is why warring parties engaged in tit for tat come in time to resemble each other rather than to sharpen their differences.”
(enTenTen15 corpus)
“The U.S. responded with new economic sanctions rather than a tit-for-tat retaliation.”
(enTenTen15 corpus)
Related words
revenge, retribution, retaliation, reprisal
Browse related words in the Macmillan Thesaurus.
