Other forms: retaliated, retaliates, retaliating
To retaliate is to strike back after being hurt. Retaliate in kind, threaten to retaliate, retaliate against them.
It implies a response of the same sort — tariffs answered by tariffs, an attack by an attack — which is where the phrase in kind comes from. In employment law, retaliation against somebody who has complained is itself unlawful. Note retaliation, retaliatory; and that the Latin behind it is talis, of such a kind, which is also where the old principle of lex talionis, an eye for an eye, comes from.
1verbretaliateTo strike back after being hurt.
“When the other team started pushing, our players retaliated, and a fight broke out.”
retaliate is a striking back.
Latin retaliare is re- plus talis, of such a kind — to return like for like. Lex talionis, the law of the same kind, is the principle behind an eye for an eye.
Latin
retāliātus
English, today
retaliate
Built from
From Latin retāliātus, past participle of retāliō (“to requite, retaliate”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA