From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishretaliatoryre‧tal‧i‧a‧to‧ry /rɪˈtæliətəri $ -tɔːri/ adjective [usually before noun] formalREVENGEdone against someone because they have harmed youa retaliatory attackExamples from the Corpusretaliatory• Will the government take retaliatory action?• Displays of retaliatorycapability were a notablefeature of the live-and-let-live system.• Some psychologistscontend that even some forms of psychosis are retaliatory in nature.• Then, Nutt the player appeared to make a retaliatory late tackle, and after being penalised was sent off for dissent.• Within twelve hours a retaliatoryraid began.• The malady is marked by nastykicks, retaliatoryshoves, hard words and worse.• This retaliatorysilence was apparently even harder to take than his outcries had been.• On the pitch they were easytargets for unscrupulousdefenders and were frequently cautioned for retaliatoryviolence.