tit for tat
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Exchanging retaliatory actions or insults
Literally: a blow for a blow
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
The pair of fabliaux assimilates the two tellers; it leaves them standing virtually hand - in - hand rather than at blows; they are reconciled by the tit - for - tat of fabliau tale - telling.
Something like Tit for Tat could be expected to grow up, and it did.
British National Corpus sentence via the MAGPIE corpus (CC BY 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-30)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-31; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “tit for tat” mean?
Exchanging retaliatory actions or insults Literally: a blow for a blow
Is “tit for tat” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.