sanction

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Authoritative permission or approval that makes a course of action valid. See Synonyms at permission.
2. n. Support or encouragement, as from public opinion or established custom.
3. n. A consideration, influence, or principle that dictates an ethical choice.
4. n. A law or decree.
5. n. The penalty for noncompliance specified in a law or decree.
6. n. A penalty, specified or in the form of moral pressure, that acts to ensure compliance or conformity.
7. n. A coercive measure adopted usually by several nations acting together against a nation violating international law.
8. v. To give official authorization or approval to: "The president, we are told, has sanctioned greed at the cost of compassion” ( David Rankin).
9. v. To encourage or tolerate by indicating approval. See Synonyms at approve.
10. v. To penalize, especially for violating a moral principle or international law.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The act of making sacred; the act of rendering authoritative as law; the act of decreeing or ratifying; the act of making binding, as by an oath.
2. n. A decree; an ordinance; a law: as, the pragmatic sanction.
3. n. The conferring of authority upon an opinion, practice, or sentiment; confirmation or support derived from public approval, from exalted testimony, or from the countenance of a person or body commanding respect.
4. n. A provision of a law which enforces obedience by the enactment of rewards or penalties, called respectively remuneratory and punitive sanctions; hence, in utilitarian ethics, the knowledge of the pleasurable or painful consequences of an act, as making it moral or immoral.
5. n. Synonyms and Authorization, countenance, support, warrant.
6. To give authoritative permission or approval to: ratify; confirm; invest with validity or authority.
7. To give countenance or support to; approve.
8. Synonyms Allow, Permit, etc. See allow.

Wiktionary

1. n. An approval, by an authority, generally one that makes something valid.
2. n. A penalty, or some coercive measure, intended to ensure compliance; especially one adopted by several nations, or by an international body.
3. n. A law, treaty, or contract, or a clause within a law, treaty, or contract, specifying the above.
4. v. To give authorization or approval to something; to ratify.
5. v. To penalize a state, especially for violating international law.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. Solemn or ceremonious ratification; an official act of a superior by which he ratifies and gives validity to the act of some other person or body; establishment or furtherance of anything by giving authority to it; confirmation; approbation.
2. n. Anything done or said to enforce the will, law, or authority of another.
3. v. To give sanction to; to ratify; to confirm; to approve.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. give religious sanction to, such as through on oath
2. n. a mechanism of social control for enforcing a society's standards
3. n. the act of final authorization
4. v. give authority or permission to
5. n. official permission or approval
6. n. formal and explicit approval
7. v. give sanction to