fight back

Verb

fight back (third-person singular simple present fights back, present participle fighting back, simple past and past participle fought back)

1. (intransitive) To defend oneself by fighting.
   • The bully hadn't been expecting his victim to fight back, and now the bully has quadriplegia.
   1. (intransitive) To counterattack (counterstrike); to resist an attack or respond after one.
      • During the Pearl Harbor attack, the U.S. Navy began fighting back, and it wouldn't stop until August 1945.
      • KIRA: You can change their minds. Convince your fellow Cardassians to go on the offensive.
        DUKAT: No, I'd be wasting my breath. They wouldn't listen to me. No one wants to fight. There was a time when the mere mention of my race inspired fear. And now we're beaten people, afraid to fight back...1996, “Return to Grace”, in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, season 4, episode 14 (Science Fiction), →OCLC
2. (transitive) to repress; to struggle to repress.
   • fight back tears
   • She tried to fight back her laughter.
3. (intransitive) To overturn a losing deficit.