up to Idioms

Fight fire with fire

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Photo of a controlled burn
To fight fire with fire means to respond to a problem or attack by using the same kind of method against it. Instead of avoiding the conflict, a person uses similar tactics to defend themselves or push back.

The phrase comes from a real firefighting technique where controlled fires are sometimes set to stop a larger wildfire by removing the fuel it needs to spread.

When their rival company launched an aggressive advertising campaign, they decided to fight fire with fire and increase their own marketing.