PENALTY • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Penalty

Translators

Dictionaries

Courses

Other

Home

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/pˈɛnəlti/ Listen

noun

Penalty n. (pl. penalties)

Penal retribution; punishment for crime or offense; the suffering in person or property which is annexed by law or judicial decision to the commission of a crime, offense, or trespass. "Death is the penalty imposed."

The suffering, or the sum to be forfeited, to which a person subjects himself by covenant or agreement, in case of nonfulfillment of stipulations; forfeiture; fine. "The penalty and forfeit of my bond."

A handicap. (Sporting Cant) Note: The term penalty is in law mostly applied to a pecuniary punishment.

Bill of pains and penalties. See under Bill.

On penalty of, or Under penalty of, on pain of; with exposure to the penalty of, in case of transgression.

See images of 'Penalty'

Etymology of 'Penalty'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Penalty" Quotes from Famous Books

... and most squalid part of the town. Outside, indeed, it differed little from its neighbors; in fact; it was intentionally neglected, to mislead the authorities, for witchcraft and the practice of magic arts were under the penalty of death. But the fittings of the roofless centre-chamber in which she was wont to perform her incantations and divinations argued no small outlay. On the walls were hangings with occult figures; the pillars were painted with weird and grewsome pictures; crucibles and cauldrons of various ...

— Uarda • Georg Ebers

... afraid the penalty for the poor lad would be two or three years in prison, Miss Marjorie. It's a serious crime, you know; house-breaking, and robbing his Majesty's mails. We can only hope it won't ...

— The Adventure League • Hilda T. Skae

... tailor who was charged before Sir Peter Laurie with being drunk and disorderly in Fleet-street, escaped the penalty of his frolic by an extraordinary whim of justice. The young schneider, it appears, sported a luxuriant crop of hair, the fashion of which not pleasing the fancy of the city Rhadamanthus, he remitted the fine on condition that the delinquent should instantly ...

— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, Complete • Various

... that the said Mr. Glover has taken them from the officer and deliverd them into the Custom House. As for the 14 pound 3/4 worth of Silver bought by the Officer, it is in Charge with the Collector Mr. Vanderlure. No question but the Master of the Sloop hath forfeited and been lyable to the Penalty according to Law, for by Affidavit of one of his Sailers he proves that at Ackill, where they first landed their Passengers, there being no Officers present, there was taken off board and Landed severall large ...

— Privateering and Piracy in the Colonial Period - Illustrative Documents • Various

... completed here in a few words. This school secured to him many happy and comparatively tranquil years. It enabled him to meet both domestic and scientific expenses, and to pay the heavy debt he had brought from Europe as the penalty of his "Fossil Fishes" and his investigations on the glaciers. When the school closed after eight years he was again a free man. With an increased salary from the college, and with such provision for the Museum (thanks to the generosity ...

— Louis Agassiz: His Life and Correspondence • Louis Agassiz

More quotes...