taste of one's own medicine
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English
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Noun
[edit]- (idiomatic, usually preceded by a) Harsh treatment inflicted on one who previously inflicted similar or equivalent treatment on others.
- Synonym: taste of one's own poison
- 1916, Rex Ellingwood Beach, chapter 27, in Rainbow's End:
- "The man's spirit is evil enough to frighten people away and we will drop stones upon him, so that he can learn the taste of his own medicine."
- 1919, Joseph A. Altsheler, chapter 5, in The Sun Of Quebec:
- The Long Tom in the stern of the schooner opened fire . . . and two men were seen to go down. The captain laughed. "That's a taste of their own medicine," he said.
- 2001 June 24, Richard Zoglin, “Hey, Wanna Buy Some Pix?”, in Time:
- Some stars reportedly even want to investigate the private lives of tabloid editors, to give them a taste of their own medicine.
Translations
[edit]harsh treatment
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