From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishretaliationre‧tal‧i‧a‧tion /rɪˌtæliˈeɪʃən/ noun [uncountable] REVENGEaction against someone who has done something bad to you → revengein retaliation (for something) This action was undoubtedly in retaliation for last week’s bomb attack.retaliation against the threat of massive retaliation against British troops
Examples from the Corpus
retaliation• Some people were beginning to talk about retaliation or revenge against the authorities responsible.• City officials denied any retaliation but said they approved the settlement because they feared higher costs from a protracted legal battle.• Over the following weeks, Portadown loyalists harassed the police in retaliation for what they claimed was police persecution.• In retaliation, the emperor gathered fifty pagan scholars, then challenged her to a religious debate.• There was a psychological as well as a military problem involved in massive retaliation.• military retaliation• Alarmed by the case, foreign governments are talking of retaliation.massive retaliation• The strategy would later be called massive retaliation.• There was a psychological as well as a military problem involved in massive retaliation.• The alternative is massive retaliation by missiles aimed at the enemy's cities, which will stay put.• Dulles called the policy massive retaliation.• In its first test massive retaliation had won a victory.• Dulles used massive retaliation as the chief instrument of containment. 