Word.ws English Dictionary

give as good as one gets

give as good as one gets verb: to behave toward others in a manner resembling or commensurate with their behavior towards oneself, especially in a situation where one is insulted or otherwise ill-treated.

Verb

give as good as one gets (third-person singular simple present gives as good as one gets, present participle giving as good as one gets, simple past gave as good as one got, past participle given as good as one got)

  1. (idiomatic) To behave toward others in a manner resembling or commensurate with their behavior towards oneself, especially in a situation where one is insulted or otherwise ill-treated.
    • On balance, it was harsh on Hearts, who had given as good as they got against their more-fancied opponents, who, despite not being at full strength, fielded a multi-million pound team.2012 August 23, Alasdair Lamont, “Hearts 0-1 Liverpool”, in BBC Sport
    • The Foreign Correspondents Association's annual banquet last week turned into an angry slanging match. Botha gave as good as he got. "I am sick and tired of a lot of foreign representatives descending on my country and picking up on all the dirty work instead of all the beauty, promise and...1988 November 21, “World Notes SOUTH AFRICA”, in Time

Forms of give as good as one gets

third-person singular presentgives as good as one gets
present participlegiving as good as one gets
pastgave as good as one got
past participlegiven as good as one got

Questions about give as good as one gets

What does give as good as one gets mean?
Give as good as one gets means to behave toward others in a manner resembling or commensurate with their behavior towards oneself, especially in a situation where one is insulted or otherwise ill-treated.
What part of speech is give as good as one gets?
Give as good as one gets is a verb.
What is the past tense of give as good as one gets?
The past tense of give as good as one gets is gave as good as one got.

Words near give as good as one gets in the dictionary

  1. give ale
  2. give ales
  3. give an eye-tooth
  4. give an inch
  5. give and take
  6. give as good as one gets
  7. give away
  8. give away the farm
  9. give away the shop
  10. give away the store
  11. give back

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: give as good as one gets (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-give as good as one gets.ogg.

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