reprisal

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: re=pris=al

CIDE DICTIONARY

reprisal, n. [F. reprsaille, It. ripresaglia, rappresaglia, LL. reprensaliae, fr. L. reprehendere, reprehensum. See Reprehend, Reprise.].

•  The act of taking from an enemy by way of reteliation or indemnity.  [1913 Webster]

  "Debatable ground, on which incursions and reprisals continued to take place."  [1913 Webster]
•  Anything taken from an enemy in retaliation.  [1913 Webster]
•  The act of retorting on an enemy by inflicting suffering or death on a prisoner taken from him, in retaliation for an act of inhumanity.  Vattel (Trans.)  [1913 Webster]
•  Any act of retaliation.  Waterland.  [1913 Webster]

Letters of marque and reprisal. See under Marque.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

reprisal, n.
1 an act of retaliation.
2 hist. the forcible seizure of a foreign subject or his or her goods as an act of retaliation.

Etymology

ME (in sense 2) f. AF reprisaille f. med.L reprisalia f. repraehensalia (as REPREHEND)

THESAURUS

reprisal

amends, avengement, avenging, blood feud, comeuppance, compensation, counterblow, desert, deserts, feud, getting even, indemnification, indemnity, just deserts, punishment, quittance, recompense, redress, repayment, requital, restitution, retaliation, retribution, revanche, revanchism, revenge, reward, sweet revenge, vendetta, vengeance, vindication, what is due, what is merited

ROGET THESAURUS

reprisal

Retaliation

N retaliation, reprisal, retort, payback, counter- stroke, counter-blast, counterplot, counter-project, retribution, lex talionis, reciprocation, tit for tat, give and take, blow for blow, quid pro quo, a Roland for an Oliver, measure for measure, diamond cut diamond, the biter bit, a game at which two can play, reproof valiant, retort courteous, recrimination, revenge, compensation, reaction, retaliating, retaliatory, retaliative, talionic, in retaliation, en revanche, mutato nomine de te fabula narratur, par pari refero, tu quoque, you too, you're another, suo sibi gladio hunc jugulo, a beau jeu beau retour, litem _ç, lite resolvit.

Taking

N taking, reception, deglutition, appropriation, prehension, prensation, capture, caption, apprehension, deprehension, abreption, seizure, expropriation, abduction, ablation, subtraction, withdrawal, abstraction, ademption, adrolepsy, dispossession, deprivation, deprivement, bereavement, divestment, disherison, distraint, distress, sequestration, confiscation, eviction, rapacity, rapaciousness, extortion, vampirism, theft, resumption, reprise, reprisal, recovery, clutch, swoop, wrench, grip, haul, take, catch, scramble, taker, captor, subduction, taking, privative, prehensile, predaceous, predal, predatory, predatorial, lupine, rapacious, raptorial, ravenous, parasitic, bereft, at one fell swoop, give an inch and take an ell.