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tat

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give someone tit for tat

Fig. to give someone something equal to what was given you; to exchange a series of very similar things, one by one, with someone. They gave me the same kind of difficulty that I gave them. They gave me tit for tat. He punched me, so I punched him. Every time he hit me, I hit him. I just gave him tit for tat.

See also: give, tat, tit

tit-for-tat

  (informal)

a tit-for-tat action is something bad that you do to someone because they have done something bad to you (always before noun) Six of the victims died in tit-for-tat attacks. (informal)

tit for tat

Repayment in kind, retaliation, as in If he won't help with the beach clean-up, I won't run a booth at the bake sale; that's tit for tat . This term is believed to be a corruption of tip for tap, which meant "a blow for a blow." Its current form dates from the mid-1500s.

See also: tat, tit

tat

n. a tattoo. Nice tats!

temp-tat

n. a temporary tattoo. (Viewed as wimpy by those bearing real ink.) My father nearly croaked until I convinced him they were temp-tats.