From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishretaliatoryre‧tal‧i‧a‧to‧ry /rɪˈtæliətəri $ -tɔːri/ adjective [usually before noun] formal REVENGEdone against someone because they have harmed you a retaliatory attack
Examples from the Corpus
retaliatory• Will the government take retaliatory action?• Displays of retaliatory capability were a notable feature of the live-and-let-live system.• Some psychologists contend that even some forms of psychosis are retaliatory in nature.• Then, Nutt the player appeared to make a retaliatory late tackle, and after being penalised was sent off for dissent.• Within twelve hours a retaliatory raid began.• The malady is marked by nasty kicks, retaliatory shoves, hard words and worse.• This retaliatory silence was apparently even harder to take than his outcries had been.• On the pitch they were easy targets for unscrupulous defenders and were frequently cautioned for retaliatory violence. 