RETALIATION

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does retaliation mean? 

• RETALIATION (noun)
  The noun RETALIATION has 1 sense:

1. action taken in return for an injury or offense

  Familiarity information: RETALIATION used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RETALIATION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Action taken in return for an injury or offense

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

retaliation; revenge

Hypernyms ("retaliation" is a kind of...):

getting even; paying back; return (a reciprocal group action)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "retaliation"):

payback; retribution; vengeance (the act of taking revenge (harming someone in retaliation for something harmful that they have done) especially in the next life)

reprisal (a retaliatory action against an enemy in wartime)

Derivation:

retaliate (make a counterattack and return like for like, especially evil for evil)

retaliate (take revenge for a perceived wrong)

 Context examples 

What strength had I to dart retaliation at my antagonist?

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Feeling indignant that he was not taken into his tutor's confidence, he set his wits to work to devise some proper retaliation for the slight.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

All this was a spur to her, pricking her to retaliation.

(White Fang, by Jack London)