retaliate
/ɹɪˈtæl.i.eɪt/
retaliate verb: to do something harmful or negative to get revenge for some harm; to fight back or respond in kind to an injury or affront.
Verb
retaliate (third-person singular simple present retaliates, present participle retaliating, simple past and past participle retaliated)
- To do something harmful or negative to get revenge for some harm; to fight back or respond in kind to an injury or affront.
- John insulted Peter to retaliate for Peter's acid remark earlier.
- Many companies have policies in place to prevent bosses from retaliating against allegations of harassment.
- To repay or requite by an act of the same kind.
- One ambassador sent word to the duke's son that his visit should be retaliated.1634, T[homas] H[erbert], A Relation of Some Yeares Trauaile, Begunne Anno 1626. into Afrique and the Greater Asia, […], London: […] William Stansby, and Jacob Bloome, →OCLC
- It is unlucky to be obliged to retaliate the injuries of authors, whose works are so soon forgotten that we are in danger of appearing the first aggressors.1713-174, Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope, Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus Preface
retaliate meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
retaliate in Tamil
- பதிலடி
retaliate in Urdu
- بدلہ لینا, غصہ اتارنا, انتقام لینا
retaliate in Bengali
- প্রতিশোধ নেওয়া, পাল্টা আক্রমণ করা
retaliate in Malayalam
- do something harmful to get revenge
- തിരിച്ചടിക്കുക tiriccaṭikkuka
More languagesFewer languages
- retaliate in Kannada
- ಪ್ರತೀಕಾರ ಮಾಡು, ಹಗೆತನ ತೀರಿಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳು
Examples of retaliate in a sentence
- If you stab him in the heart he won't live long enough to retaliate.
- Although severely provoked, she showed admirable restraint in not retaliating.
- Look at the amount of destruction to the enemy base. We pretty much killed their ability to retaliate.
Forms of retaliate
| third-person singular present | retaliates |
|---|---|
| present participle | retaliating |
| past participle | retaliated |
| past | retaliated |
Origin of retaliate
From Latin retāliātus, past participle of retāliō (“to requite, retaliate”).
Words formed from retaliate
Questions about retaliate
- What does retaliate mean?
- Retaliate means to do something harmful or negative to get revenge for some harm; to fight back or respond in kind to an injury or affront.
- What is retaliate in Tamil?
- Retaliate in Tamil is பதிலடி. See Retaliate meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is retaliate?
- Retaliate is a verb.
- How do you pronounce retaliate?
- Retaliate is pronounced /ɹɪˈtæl.i.eɪt/.
- What is the past tense of retaliate?
- The past tense of retaliate is retaliated.
Words near retaliate in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: retaliate (page history and authors); retaliate (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); retaliate (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); retaliate (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); retaliate (Kannada Wiktionary) (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-retaliate.wav.
Cite this entry: “retaliate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/retaliate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.