tit for tat

UK/ˈtɪt fə(ɹ)ˈtæt/US/ˈtɪt fɚ ˈtæt/

tit for tat noun: equivalent retribution; an act of returning exactly what one gets; an eye for an eye.

Image: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun (1)

tit for tat (countable and uncountable, plural tit for tats)

(idiomatic) Equivalent retribution; an act of returning exactly what one gets; an eye for an eye.
- If you hit me, I’ll hit you back; tit for tat.
- Could it but for a longer Space / Lengthen the Bliſs it let's us taſte, / Who would not doat on't? But alas! / The Joy's too exquiſite to laſt. / Two white Herculean Pillars prop / The tufted Gin, the tempting Snare; / When they divide, then in we pop, / Before we well know where we are. / Then...c. 1706, [Edward Ward], The Dutch Riddle: Or, A Character of a Hairy Monster, often Found in Holland, &c., [London?]: Sold by the booksellers of London and Westminster, →OCLC, page 2
Synonyms:

eye for an eye, a Roland for an Oliver

Noun (2)

tit for tat (plural tit for tats)

(Cockney, slang) A hat.
- Fred came from Cheapside in London – an official Cockney, born within earshot of the bells of St. Mary-le-Bow – and he taught her Cockney rhyming slang. She loved its lighthearted logic: the last word in a common phrase rhymed with the word it was to replace. So "tit for tat" was "hat", and...[2005, A. R. Homer, The Sobs of Autumn’s Violins: A Novel of War and Love, Coral Springs, Fla.: Llumina Press, →ISBN, page 148
- Tit for tat hat / The phrase ‘tit for tat’ […] emerged as a rhyme for ‘hat’ in the late nineteenth century and was subsequently condensed to ‘titfer’ around 1930, in which form it enjoyed unparalleled success at a time when virtually everyone wore a hat.[2008, Geoff Tibballs, “Tit for tat”, in The Ultimate Cockney Geezer’s Guide to Rhyming Slang, London: Ebury Press, Ebury Publishing, →ISBN, page 182
Synonyms:

ball and bat, titfer

tit for tat meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

tit for tat in Hindi

act of returning exactly what one gets: जैसे को तैसा jaise ko taisā

tit for tat in Urdu

tit for tat: ادلے کا بدلا adley ka badlā

tit for tat in Bengali

tit for tat: ইটটি মারলে পাটকেলটি খেতে হয় iṭṭi marle paṭkelṭi khete hôẏ

More languagesFewer languages

tit for tat in Malayalam: പകരത്തിനു പകരം, ഉരുളയ്ക്കുപ്പേരി, തിരിച്ചടി, അടിക്കടി
tit for tat in Kannada: ಏಟಿಗೆ ಏಟು, ಮುಯ್ಯಿಗೆ ಮುಯ್ಯಿ
tit for tat in Persian: این به اون در in be on dar
tit for tat in Vietnamese: ăn miếng trả miếng, có qua có lại

Examples of tit for tat in a sentence

This is but Tit for Tat, young Gentleman.c. 1775, [Henry] Carey, The Honest Yorkshire-man. A Ballad Farce. As It is Acted at the Theatre-Royal, Dublin: Printed and sold by Thomas...
Do you think I'm going to be beat by a horse?" / "It would only be tit for tat; you beat her, so she has a right to beat you."1864, Philip Wharton, chapter II, in Heart or Head. … In Two Volumes, volume II, London: Charles J. Skeet, 10, King William Street, Charing...
Tit for tat is the policy of cooperating on the first move and then doing whatever the other player did on the previous move.2006, Robert Axelrod, The evolution of cooperation, →ISBN, page 13:
US-Myanmar relations in the past few years have been largely based on a quid pro quo or tit for tat strategy.2013 May 21, Nehginpao Kipgen, “Quid Pro Quo Diplomacy in US-Myanmar Relations”, in Foreign Policy Journal, archived from the original on...

Synonyms of tit for tat

Forms of tit for tat

plural	tit for tats

Origin of tit for tat

Uncertain; conjectured to be ultimately from Dutch dit voor dat (“this for that”) or French tant pour tant (“equal for equal”). Compare earlier tip for tap (“(a) blow for (a) blow”), from tip + tap; compare also dialectal tint for tant and tit (“a light blow or hit”). The vowel sequence follows a typical ablaut reduplication pattern.

Tit for tat is a rhyme for hat.

Words formed from tit for tat

Questions about tit for tat

What does tit for tat mean?: Tit for tat means equivalent retribution; an act of returning exactly what one gets; an eye for an eye.
What is tit for tat in Hindi?: Tit for tat in Hindi is जैसे को तैसा (jaise ko taisā). See Tit for tat meaning in Hindi.
How do you use tit for tat in a sentence?: This is but Tit for Tat, young Gentleman.
What part of speech is tit for tat?: Tit for tat is a noun.
How do you pronounce tit for tat?: Tit for tat is pronounced /ˈtɪt fə(ɹ)ˈtæt/ (UK).
What is the plural of tit for tat?: The plural of tit for tat is tit for tats.

Words near tit for tat in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: tit for tat (page history and authors); tit for tat (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ادلے کا بدلا (Urdu) (page history and authors); ইটটি মারলে পাটকেলটি খেতে হয় (Bengali) (page history and authors); tit for tat (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); tit for tat (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-tit for tat.ogg.

Cite this entry: “tit for tat.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/tit_for_tat. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.