Meaning of tu quoque | Babel Free

Definitions

1. An argument whereby an accusation or insult is turned back on the accuser; same to you
   attributive, often
2. The vulva or vagina.
   obsolete, slang

Equivalents

Examples

“And then they meet us with miserable tu quoques—tu quoques, gentlemen, which are the meanest form of logic, and, in my opinion, the most contemptible development of statesmanship.”

“In the long run, the facile tu quoque arguments, such as those offered by Massu on the Alleg case, can only lead to an endless escalation of horror and degradation.”

“Not all tu quoques, of course, are countercritical. For example the anti–logical-positivist and antirelativist tu quoques encountered in Chapter Three purport to discover a “reflexive weakness” in the positive arguments of their opponents such that when such arguments are turned back on themselves the result is an absurdity.”

“Tu quoques shift the attention away from the weakness of one’s own argument. Political platforms are rife with tu quoques: each political party accuses the other of some atrocity or oversight wihout responding to any of the charges laid against them.”

“The idealising side of Furman's construction exposes itself to the tu quoque retorts with which Putin and his aides now relish silencing criticism by the West.”

“I presented the mouth of the bottle in a slanting direction toward her. In an instant, she with her fingers contracted the lips of her tu quoque so as to produce a narrow curved stream, so correctly aimed that at least one-third actually entered the bottle.”

CEFR level