Converse of object

• fear: Need new ways to get people to give evidence without fearing reprisals.

• threaten: Erica tells Jim that Janet's group has threatened reprisals for her arrest.

• suffer: The success of this process depends on witnesses being able to speak the truth about racism without suffering reprisals.

• avoid: Much of the SOE's sabotage was low-key to avoid massive reprisals by the Nazis.

• take: Meg cannot convince Bea not to take reprisals for the attack on her.

Preposition: for

• attack: Nine Polish villages raised in reprisals for attacks on Germans.

• killing: The recapture of Newry in May 1642 was accompanied by the massacre of soldiers and civilians in reprisal for the killing of Protestants.

Adjective modifier

• savage: Even the slightest whisper of dissent provoked savage reprisals.

• brutal: Evil spells and brutal reprisals haunt them as they face their most sinister challenge to date.

• violent: NATO sources say renegade members of the Kosovo Liberation Army have joined in the violent reprisals.

• bloody: Fear of bloody reprisals will allow Winnie a free passage toward goal every time she gets the ball.

• severe: Unsurprisingly she threatened him with severe reprisals should he actually carry out his plans.

• massive: Much of the SOE's sabotage was low-key to avoid massive reprisals by the Nazis.

Modifies a noun

• killing: Surely the time has come for both sides to act with restraint, and in the name of humanity stop the constant reprisal killings.

• prisoner: The reprisal prisoners killed were not taken from the community where the attack on the German soldiers occurred.

• attack: In particular, he was conscious of the need to avert reprisal attacks against innocent Irish people in Britain.

• measure: The remainder were finished off on the basis of reprisal measures.

• action: Many other reprisal actions on the part of his troops were brought to his notice in reports made to him.