fightback

plural fightbacks

1. A campaign of resistance; a counterattack.

   Stosur gave hope of a fightback when she smashed through Dementieva's serve in the first game of the second set.

   2009 January 25, Bruce Matthews, “Brave Sam Stosur wilts under Elena Dementieva”, in Herald Sun, archived from the original on 31 Dec 2012

   3 more examples

   The gay movement is in retreat as evidenced in the rise of anti-gay attacks and and ^([sic]) the success of anti-gay legislation. One only needs to read the Gay Community News to realize the severity of the anti-gay offensive. The fightback to this anti-gay offensive has been weak and disoriented. The number of gay organizations, thus the number of organized gays are shrinking, not growing.

   1981 December 12, Steve Rose, “Some People's Congress”, in Gay Community News, volume 9, number 21, page 4

   Liverpool resisted a second-half fightback from Wolves to secure a hard-fought victory and end a run of back-to-back Premier League defeats.

   2011 September 24, Arindam Rej, “Liverpool 2 - 1 Wolverhampton”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 10 Feb 2022

   A second-half fightback to draw with the USA offered a hope that swiftly evaporated following a gut-wrenching 2-0 loss to Iran only four days later. It meant only the seemingly impossible would be enough for Rob Page's men to extend their World Cup dream.

   2022 November 29, Ian Mitchelmore, “Wales put out of World Cup misery by England as sobering tournament must signal changing of the guard”, in WalesOnline, archived from the original on 16 Jan 2026