lex talionis

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

It is state-law; alike self-help, blood-feud, marriage by capture, are absent; though family solidarity, district responsibility, ordeal, the lex talionis, are primitive features that remain.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Part 1, Slice 1 "Austria, Lower" to "Bacon" by Various

To this reverse of fortune the ousted ones retort with the brutal lex talionis: an egg for an egg, a cell for a cell.

From The Mason-Bees by Teixeira de Mattos, Alexander

Neither will I presume to suggest the operation of any lex talionis in respect of cruelty.

From Paul Faber, Surgeon by MacDonald, George

There are instances where Talmudic law is tenderer than the Biblical; for example, the lex talionis is softened into an equivalent.

From Hebraic Literature; Translations from the Talmud, Midrashim and Kabbala by Various

But lex talionis, as the lawyers call it—pay ’em back in their own coin.

From The Kopje Garrison A Story of the Boer War by Boucher, W.