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Phrase(s): poetic justice
appropriate, ideal, or ironic punishment. • It was poetic justice that Jane won the race after Mary tried to get her banned from the race. • The car thieves tried to steal a car with no gas. That’s poetic justice.
McGrawhill's American Idioms And Phrasal Verbs
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An outcome in which virtue is rewarded and evil punished, often in an especially appropriate or ironic manner. For example, It was poetic justice for the known thief to go to jail for the one crime he didn't commit. [Early 1700s]
American Heritage Idioms