TIT FOR TAT • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Tit for tat

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/tɪt fɔr tæt/ Listen

noun

Tit n.

A small horse.

A woman; used in contempt.

A morsel; a bit.

(Zool.)

(a)

Any one of numerous species of small singing birds belonging to the families Paridae and Leiotrichidae; a titmouse.

(b)

The European meadow pipit; a titlark.

Ground tit. (Zool.) See Wren tit, under Wren.

Hill tit (Zool.), any one of numerous species of Asiatic singing birds belonging to Siva, Milna, and allied genera.

Tit babbler (Zool.), any one of several species of small East Indian and Asiatic timaline birds of the genus Trichastoma.

Tit for tat. An equivalent; retaliation.

Tit thrush (Zool.), any one of numerous species of Asiatic and East Indian birds belonging to Suthora and allied genera. In some respects they are intermediate between the thrushes and titmice.

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Etymology of 'Tit for tat'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Tit for tat" Quotes from Famous Books

... readily be conjectured, especially when it is considered that the average Northman is by no means indisposed to have a little brush with his neighbor now and then. But in such an event the Germans usually gave tit for tat, and that with a vengeance. On one occasion they killed a bishop in the presence of the king; at various other times they burned monasteries over the heads of the inmates; and frequently they sheltered criminals, ...

— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume VI. • Various

... remark was another "Pshaw!" But Mrs. Peck went on: "When you've lived opposite to people like that for a long time you feel as if you had some rights in them—tit for tat! But she didn't take it up today; she didn't speak to me. She knows who I am as well as she knows ...

— The Patagonia • Henry James

... constantly uppermost with him. "Blood for blood", and "life for life", and such like balanced jingles, have passed current in people's mouths, from legislators downwards, until they have been corrupted into "tit for tat", ...

— Miscellaneous Papers • Charles Dickens

... that hung at her side, and taking leave of the king, carried it to Constantine. When the brothers saw the food over which Constantine exulted, they asked him to share it with them; but he refused, rendering them tit for tat. On which account there arose between them great envy, that continually gnawed their hearts. Now Constantine, although handsome in his face, nevertheless, from the privation he had suffered, was covered with scabs and ...

— Italian Popular Tales • Thomas Frederick Crane

... "Tit for tat," exclaimed. Bumpus; "what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. After this we'll call it off, fellows, remember. It was give and take, and now the slate's ...

— The, Boy Scouts on Sturgeon Island - or Marooned Among the Game-fish Poachers • Herbert Carter