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# retaliate

«retaliate» in Mova's school dictionary: **To do something bad back to someone who has hurt or…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

verb (retaliate, retaliates, retaliated, retaliating)

### meaning for a pupil

To do something bad back to someone who has hurt or attacked you; to hit back. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/R/retaliate/#m1)

### sense in the lessons

In PSHE and school rules, pupils are told not to retaliate but to tell an adult. In history and news, countries retaliate after attacks. Phrases: retaliate against, retaliate by.

### examples

- If someone pushes you, don't retaliate; tell a teacher. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/R/retaliate/#x1)
- He retaliated by throwing sand. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/R/retaliate/#x2)
- The army retaliated after the attack. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/R/retaliate/#x3)
- She was sent off for retaliating. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/R/retaliate/#x4)
- The cat retaliated with a scratch. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/R/retaliate/#x5)
- Don't retaliate, it only makes things worse. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/R/retaliate/#x6)

### note

Regular verb: retaliated. Noun: retaliation. Similar: hit back, get even, take revenge.

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «retaliate» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/R/retaliate/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.