1
general::
Phrase(s): 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.
McGrawhill's American Idioms And Phrasal Verbs
2
general::
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.
American Heritage Idioms