1. The act of punishing.
2. Any pain, suffering, or loss inflicted on a person because of a
crime or offense.
I never gave them condign punishment. Shak.
The rewards and punishments of another life. Locke.
3. (Law)
Defn: A penalty inflicted by a court of justice on a convicted offender as a just retribution, and incidentally for the purposes of reformation and prevention.
PUNITION
Pu*ni"tion, n. Etym: [L. punitio: cf. F. punition. See Punish.]
Defn: Punishment. [R.] Mir. for Mag.
PUNITIVE
Pu"ni*tive, a.
Defn: 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.
PUNITORY
Pu"ni*to*ry, a.
Defn: Punishing; tending to punishment; punitive. God . . . may make moral evil, as well as natural, at the same time both prudential and punitory. A. Tucker.