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PENALTY
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The act of punishing
Synonyms:
penalisation; penalization; penalty; punishment
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("penalty" is a kind of...):
social control (control exerted (actively or passively) by group action)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "penalty"):
castigation; chastisement (verbal punishment)
corporal punishment (the infliction of physical injury on someone convicted of committing a crime)
cruel and unusual punishment (punishment prohibited by the 8th amendment to the U.S. Constitution; includes torture or degradation or punishment too severe for the crime committed)
detention (a punishment in which a student must stay at school after others have gone home)
correction; discipline (the act of disciplining)
economic strangulation (punishment of a group by cutting off commercial dealings with them)
imprisonment (putting someone in prison or in jail as lawful punishment)
medicine; music (punishment for one's actions)
self-punishment (punishment inflicted on yourself)
stick (threat of a penalty)
penance; self-abasement; self-mortification (voluntary self-punishment in order to atone for some wrongdoing)
Derivation:
penalise (impose a penalty on; inflict punishment on)
Sense 2
Meaning:
(games) a handicap or disadvantage that is imposed on a competitor (or a team) for an infraction of the rules of the game
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("penalty" is a kind of...):
handicap (advantage given to a competitor to equalize chances of winning)
Domain category:
game (a contest with rules to determine a winner)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "penalty"):
game misconduct ((ice hockey) a penalty that suspends a player for the remainder of a game (but allows the team to send in a substitute for the suspended player))
Sense 3
Meaning:
The disadvantage or painful consequences of an action or condition
Example:
neglected his health and paid the penalty
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("penalty" is a kind of...):
disadvantage (the quality of having an inferior or less favorable position)
Antonym:
reward (benefit resulting from some event or action)
Sense 4
Meaning:
A payment required for not fulfilling a contract
Classified under:
Nouns denoting possession and transfer of possession
Hypernyms ("penalty" is a kind of...):
payment (a sum of money paid or a claim discharged)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "penalty"):
requital; retribution (a justly deserved penalty)
forfeit; forfeiture (a penalty for a fault or mistake that involves losing or giving up something)
amercement; fine; mulct (money extracted as a penalty)
Context examples:
The American, Abe Slaney, was condemned to death at the winter assizes at Norwich, but his penalty was changed to penal servitude in consideration of mitigating circumstances, and the certainty that Hilton Cubitt had fired the first shot.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Whereupon the emperor his father published an edict, commanding all his subjects, upon great penalties, to break the smaller end of their eggs.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
Which is a very poor way of saying that it is good for oneself to be strong, and evil for oneself to be weak—or better yet, it is pleasurable to be strong, because of the profits; painful to be weak, because of the penalties.
(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)
This January 10 full moon eclipse will have stern opposition from Saturn and Pluto, so someone is asking to be paid and seems not to be in the mood to give you an extension without stiff penalties.
(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)
I have thought, since, that its assuming that character was a necessary consequence of Mr. Murdstone's firmness, which wouldn't allow him to let anybody off from the utmost weight of the severest penalties he could find any excuse for.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Of course, they could squirm as they perished, as the socialists squirmed, as the speaker on the platform and the perspiring crowd were squirming even now as they counselled together for some new device with which to minimize the penalties of living and outwit the Cosmos.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
Whereas, by a statute made in the reign of his imperial majesty Calin Deffar Plune, it is enacted, that, whoever shall make water within the precincts of the royal palace, shall be liable to the pains and penalties of high-treason; notwithstanding, the said Quinbus Flestrin, in open breach of the said law, under colour of extinguishing the fire kindled in the apartment of his majesty’s most dear imperial consort, did maliciously, traitorously, and devilishly, by discharge of his urine, put out the said fire kindled in the said apartment, lying and being within the precincts of the said royal palace, against the statute in that case provided, etc. against the duty, etc.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
My aunt was mightily amused, when we began to talk composedly, by my account of my meeting with Mr. Chillip, and of his holding her in such dread remembrance; and both she and Peggotty had a great deal to say about my poor mother's second husband, and that murdering woman of a sister,—on whom I think no pain or penalty would have induced my aunt to bestow any Christian or Proper Name, or any other designation.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
