fight fire with fire

To retaliate with the same methods that one has had to endure. Come on, it's time to fight fire with fire and start a nasty rumor about Tiffany, like she did to you.

Prov. Use against your opponent the same methods he or she is using against you. After her opponent had spent several weeks slandering her, the candidate decided to fight fire with fire. When evangelists would come to our house and try to convert us, Mother would fight fire with fire and try to convert them to her religion.

Combat an evil or negative circumstances by reacting in kind. For example, When the opposition began a smear campaign, we decided to fight fire with fire. Although ancient writers from Plato to Erasmus cautioned that one should not add fire to fire, this warning is not incorporated in the idiom, which was first recorded in Shakespeare's Coriolanus.

If you fight fire with fire, you attack or criticize someone with force after they attack or criticize you with force. The military were not afraid of fighting fire with fire. Note: Other verbs such as meet or match are sometimes used instead of fight. Sometimes you just have to meet fire with fire.

To combat one evil or one set of negative circumstances by reacting in kind.

Counter an evil or adversity with equal force. The Greek philosopher Plato counseled just the opposite—don’t add fire to fire— and was quoted by numerous subsequent writers, from Plutarch to Erasmus. Nevertheless, the idea that fire is put out by fire prevailed. “The only way I know how to fight fire is with fire,” wrote Stewart Sterling (Down among the Dead Men, 1943).