Turnabout is fair play

You had your turn; now it's only fair that I should have mine. ( Compare Every dog has his day .)

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Idioms and Phrases

Taking alternate or successive turns at doing something is just and equitable. For example, Come on, I want to sit in the front seat now—turnabout is fair play . This justification for taking turns was first recorded in 1755.

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

The reason for high egg prices was still bird flu, not presidential policy—but in politics, turnabout is fair play, and Trump certainly didn’t give the impression he was making the matter a priority.

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But after Princess Leia’s bikini in “Return of the Jedi,” it certainly seems like turnabout is fair play.

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"Gremlins" stole the idea for Gizmo from the Ewoks, and turnabout is fair play.

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“When Gray Davis was governor, we had Republican governors from other states in here every second Thursday, so I guess turnabout is fair play,” he said.

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“I wouldn’t be for it, but turnabout is fair play,” Representative Thomas Massie, Republican of Kentucky, said of retaliatory subpoenas.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

turnabout turn a deaf ear

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