as in avenging
to punish in kind the wrongdoer responsible for
retaliated his neighbor's malicious destruction of his flower garden by cutting down the man's prize apple tree
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Recent Examples of retaliating
The complaint accuses police of retaliating against Martinez for exercising her First Amendment rights.
—
Real-Time News Team, Miami Herald, 3 Nov. 2025
The movie ends as the president is forced to choose between letting the missile just hit Chicago to avoid starting a war or retaliating.
—Christopher Rudolph, PEOPLE, 25 Oct. 2025
China appears to be retaliating against a Canadian research firm for revealing that Huawei still uses foreign components in its processors.
—PC Magazine, 10 Oct. 2025
Her lawsuit also accused MTS of retaliating against her.
—Jeff McDonald, San Diego Union-Tribune, 7 Oct. 2025
Russia was also retaliating against the court, including by ordering Khan’s arrest.
—David D. Kirkpatrick, New Yorker, 5 Oct. 2025
Yes, the administration is actually asserting that they must be allowed to keep imposing tariffs to stop other countries from retaliating against it for imposing tariffs.
—The Editorial Board, Oc Register, 28 Sep. 2025
The base became a liability when Iran targeted it in June, retaliating for an American strike on Iranian nuclear facilities.
—Abbas Al Lawati, CNN Money, 18 Sep. 2025
The agreement also includes an injunction preventing the union from enforcing the collective bargaining agreement between the union and the district on the basis of race and from retaliating against anyone who opposed any discriminatory practices or participated in any related investigation.
—Olivia Stevens, Chicago Tribune, 5 Sep. 2025
Real-Time News Team, Miami Herald, 3 Nov. 2025
The movie ends as the president is forced to choose between letting the missile just hit Chicago to avoid starting a war or retaliating.
—Christopher Rudolph, PEOPLE, 25 Oct. 2025
China appears to be retaliating against a Canadian research firm for revealing that Huawei still uses foreign components in its processors.
—PC Magazine, 10 Oct. 2025
Her lawsuit also accused MTS of retaliating against her.
—Jeff McDonald, San Diego Union-Tribune, 7 Oct. 2025
Russia was also retaliating against the court, including by ordering Khan’s arrest.
—David D. Kirkpatrick, New Yorker, 5 Oct. 2025
Yes, the administration is actually asserting that they must be allowed to keep imposing tariffs to stop other countries from retaliating against it for imposing tariffs.
—The Editorial Board, Oc Register, 28 Sep. 2025
The base became a liability when Iran targeted it in June, retaliating for an American strike on Iranian nuclear facilities.
—Abbas Al Lawati, CNN Money, 18 Sep. 2025
The agreement also includes an injunction preventing the union from enforcing the collective bargaining agreement between the union and the district on the basis of race and from retaliating against anyone who opposed any discriminatory practices or participated in any related investigation.
—Olivia Stevens, Chicago Tribune, 5 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for retaliating
avenging
Verb
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The Eagles’ task of the week involves avenging their loss to the Giants in Week 6.—
Mike Jones,
New York Times,
26 Oct. 2025
-
But in spite of Barkley's monster performance and the Eagles avenging their previous Week 6 loss to the Giants, Barkley offered up a rather intriguing quote while being interviewed by Fox Sports reporter Erin Andrews after the game.—
Matthew Schmidt,
MSNBC Newsweek,
26 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Retaliating.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/retaliating. Accessed 15 Nov. 2025.
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