as in retaliations
the act or an instance of responding to an injury with an injury
the neighborhood is being torn apart by an endless cycle of gang violence and retribution
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Recent Examples of retributions
What starts as a petty territorial conflict mutates into a spiralling cycle of retributions, escalating from passive-aggressive jabs to acts of destruction and ruin.
—
Udita Jhunjhunwala, Variety, 21 Nov. 2025
Surveys are important, too, so workers feel safe to speak up without any retributions.
—Vicki Salemi, Boston Herald, 27 Oct. 2025
Udita Jhunjhunwala, Variety, 21 Nov. 2025
Surveys are important, too, so workers feel safe to speak up without any retributions.
—Vicki Salemi, Boston Herald, 27 Oct. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for retributions
Noun
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Neither country can afford to return to the prior tariff rates during the heat of tit-for-tat retaliations, which freaked out Big Tech earlier this year.—
Ashley Belanger,
ArsTechnica,
15 Sep. 2025
Noun
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Dawson’s ended its run in 2003; Van Der Beek, having achieved something at the start of his career that most actors spend their lives pursuing, might have gone on to seek lucrative reprisals of his famous role.—
Megan Garber,
The Atlantic,
12 Feb. 2026
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The six-episode season streams E4 this week with Wallace uncovering vicious reprisals in Bilbao, Spain’s sunny resort area.—
Stephen Schaefer,
Boston Herald,
8 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Retributions.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/retributions. Accessed 15 Feb. 2026.
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