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fight fire with fire
Fight fire with fire.
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.
fight fire with fire
to deal with someone in the same way that they are dealing with you In the face of stiff competition we had to fight fire with fire and cut our prices.
fight fire with fire
to attack someone with a lot of force because they are attacking you with force In the face of stiff competition from rival firms we had to fight fire with fire and slash our prices.
fight fire with fire
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.
fight fire with fire
To combat one evil or one set of negative circumstances by reacting in kind.