getting even
Returning the favor
Getting even is retaliating against someone who wronged you, restoring a perceived balance: After he spread rumors about her, she spent months plotting to get even.
The phrase implies proportional revenge—not escalation, but settling the score.
It can describe actual payback or just the desire for it: I don't get mad, I get even.
- tit for tatEquivalent retaliation
- score-settlingAvenging past grievances
- paybackRetaliation for wrongs
- retaliationPunitive response to injury
- reprisalPunitive action in return
settling the score · requital · eye for an eye · taste of their own medicine · revenge · sweet revenge · cold dish · comeuppance · vendetta · turnabout · closure · vengeance · retributive justice · catharsis · served · score · hit · payment
- vengeancerevenge, vengeance, vendetta, retribution, retaliation
- vigilantismvigilante, vigilantism, lynch mob, lynching, mob justice
getting evenforgiving
Inclined to pardon offenses
forgiveness · pardoning · making peace · reconciling · burying the hatchet
getting evencompassion
Concern for others' distress
magnanimity · understanding · empathy · mercy · clemency
even, evening, uneven, getting, gets, evened, gotten, getaway, forgetting