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Tit for tat
Definitions
- 1 Equivalent retribution; an act of returning exactly what one gets; an eye for an eye. countable, idiomatic, uncountable
"If you hit me, I’ll hit you back; tit for tat."
- 2 A hat. Cockney, slang
"Fred came from Cheapside in London – an official Cockney, born within earshot of the bells of St. Mary-le-Bow – and he taught her Cockney rhyming slang. She loved its lighthearted logic: the last word in a common phrase rhymed with the word it was to replace. So "tit for tat" was "hat", and "trouble and strife" was "wife". But the best part was that you usually dropped the rhyming words and used only the first words, so "your wife's hat" became "your trouble's titfer"."
- 3 an equivalent given in return wordnet
Etymology
Uncertain; conjectured to be ultimately from Dutch dit voor dat (“this for that”) or French tant pour tant (“equal for equal”). Compare earlier tip for tap (“(a) blow for (a) blow”), from tip + tap; compare also dialectal tint for tant and tit (“a light blow or hit”). The vowel sequence follows a typical ablaut reduplication pattern.
Tit for tat is a rhyme for hat.
See also for "tit for tat"
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Unscramble this word: titfortat