[ noun ] a retaliatory action against an enemy in wartime <noun.act>
Reprisal \Re*pris"al\ (r?-priz"al), n. [F. repr?saille, It. ripresaglia, rappresaglia, LL. reprensaliae, fr. L. reprehendere, reprehensum. See {Reprehend}, {Reprise}.] 1. The act of taking from an enemy by way of reteliation or indemnity.
Debatable ground, on which incursions and reprisals continued to take place. --Macaulay.
2. Anything taken from an enemy in retaliation.
3. The act of retorting on an enemy by inflicting suffering or death on a prisoner taken from him, in retaliation for an act of inhumanity. --Vattel (Trans.)
4. Any act of retaliation. --Waterland.
{Letters of marque and reprisal}. See under {Marque}.
Congressional approval of the reprisal hasn't slowed the push to put curbs on the U.S. military presence in the Persian Gulf.
Few dare to speak out in fear of reprisal.
Young Asians, long silent in fear of reprisal, are speaking out with growing vehemence.
That year, Czecholsovakia expelled two Britons in an apparent reprisal.
U.S. intelligence sources say they were apparently killed in reprisal for American troops taking Filipino soldiers wounded in a battle with Communist rebels to the base hospital.
No large-scale killings by army troops were denounced from late 1985 until May 1988, when residents of Cayara village charged that troops killed 29 villagers in reprisal for a guerrilla ambush of an army convoy on the village's outskirts.
Yet in the event of such an attack, would other European countries risk a Soviet reprisal by fighting in the gulf?
Diplomats in Baghdad said the decree apparently was aimed at facilitating the return of thousands of Iraqi servicemen who are in Iran and want to return but fear reprisal for desertion and siding with the enemy during the war.
Monrovians also were frightened by tribal reprisal killings by the army.
The move came after a British diplomat was detained and beaten in apparent reprisal for British police arresting an Iranian envoy on shoplifting charges.
Police believe the two Catholics slain Monday were killed in reprisal for attacks last week by guerrillas of the predominantly Catholic Irish Republican Army in Northern Ireland, England and West Germany that killed six people and wounded 37.
Mr. Welsh believes it could take more than five years before dissenters can criticize the leadership without fear of reprisal.
On the issue of religious freedom in their own country, the Soviet delegates said Gorbachev's policy of openness is letting church leaders speak out without fear of reprisal for the first time in more than 50 years.
Gulf-based shipping executives believe some is from three Iranian oil platforms wrecked by the U.S. Navy in recent reprisal attacks.
Threats of reprisal, bribes, pleas from defendants' relatives, fresh doubts or feelings of guilt can influence a witness after a trial and bring about a recantation, says Mr. Rothstein.
Five people were shot dead over the bloodiest weekend of the year in Northern Ireland as Protestants and Catholics engaged in reprisal attacks, according to police officials in Belfast.
It announced an indefinite extension of its reprisal shelling of Iraqi military and economic targets, and Tehran's foreign minister asked the U.N. for action to stop Baghdad's attacks on residential areas.
The fanatical Shining Path frequently has shot or stabbed to death peasants in reprisal for aid the campesinos provide to the military.
To many outsiders, a process of national reconciliation in Nicaragua is under way and the Contras will be able to return safely to their homeland without fear of reprisal.
"Fear of reprisal from the apprehended worker is only a small part" of their reluctance, says Mr. Wells, whose Austin, Texas-based firm provides education and research on white-collar crime.
If the danger of reprisal against existing UN forces is held to inhibit such action, as British ministers have been arguing in recent days, then those forces should be reinforced and/or withdrawn to more defensible positions.
"He kept a pistol beside him in the car ever since learning that he was probably on the November 17 hit list," said one businessmen, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisal.
A Shiite Moslem leader threatened a "ruthless" reprisal in the event of a U.S. attack.
All but one of those testifying, an Indian national, said they dared not use their full names for fear of reprisal against family and friends still in Kuwait.
"Things are heating up in the Persian Gulf, and we can expect some reprisal from Iran," Mr. Randol says.
Two pilots who blew the whistle on safety violations at the Rock Island Arsenal say they've been grounded, discredited, and assigned to minor jobs in reprisal.
Sexual harassment of female students at the Naval Academy is widespread, and some victims don't complain openly for fear of reprisal, according to an internal academy report.
The radio said the killing was in reprisal for the earlier killing of a civilian by a presidential guardsman.
They said the troops began killing Hutus in reprisal for the slain Tutsis.
A free press regularly lampoons the government and even pokes fun at Diouf without fear of reprisal.