punitive

punitive is defined in Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1913) with 1 sense. The full text of each entry is reproduced verbatim below.

Definitions

  1. 1.Of or pertaining to punishment; involving, awarding, or inflicting punishment; as, punitive law or justice. If death be punitive, so, likewise, is the necessity imposed upon man of toiling for his subsistence. I. Taylor. We shall dread a blow from the punitive hand. Bagehot.

Source: Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).

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