Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To subject (a person) to a penalty, especially for infringement of a law or regulation. synonym: punish.
  • transitive verb To make (an action or a condition) liable to a penalty.
  • transitive verb To impose a handicap on; place at a disadvantage.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To affix what amounts to a penalty to some act that is not in itself a penal offense; to subject to a disadvantage; handicap.
  • To lay under a penalty, in ease of violation, falsification, or the like: said of regulations, statements, etc.; subject, expose, or render liable to a penalty: said of persons. Also spelled penalise.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To make penal.
  • transitive verb (Sport.), engraving To put a penalty on. See Penalty, 3.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive To subject to a penalty, especially for the infringement of a rule or regulation.
  • verb transitive, sports To impose a handicap on.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb impose a penalty on; inflict punishment on

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From penal +‎ -ize.

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Examples

  • I will vote for him with or without her (yes i would like her on the ticket .... but will not "penalize" him if he does not pick her).

    Carter says unity ticket would be 'worst mistake' 2008

  • Some might argue an off-peak plan could "penalize" riders who have no choice but to ride at peak hours, like those with a fixed work schedule.

    Alex Pasternack: Why New York Subway Chief's Congestion Pricing Idea Makes Cents 2009

  • For all you Mc-haters out there, Denver may be passing provocative legislation that will financially "penalize" builders of mega-sized houses.

    July 2007 2007

  • For all you Mc-haters out there, Denver may be passing provocative legislation that will financially "penalize" builders of mega-sized houses.

    McMansions to McPay Supersized McBucks 2007

  • This administrator further indicated that 75-80 percent of students do take "3 years of math and science", but then indicated that it would "penalize" the remaining 25% to require them to do it.

    Archive 2005-01-01 2005

  • A lot of them, you know, John Travolta and Tommy Lee Jones -- you don't get the sense of, you know, wanting to kind of penalize an actor or a star whereas there's been a lot of bitterness about CEOs because the sense is that there's a public trust aspect to it.

    CNN Transcript Oct 28, 2003 2003

  • Note that progressives here are unthinkingly using the standard Republican framing of taxation issues -- a bicycle fee would "penalize" the "worthy" among us -- as well as fulminating in faux populist us vs. them terms.

    BlueOregon 2009

  • Note that progressives here are unthinkingly using the standard Republican framing of taxation issues -- a bicycle fee would "penalize" the "worthy" among us -- as well as fulminating in faux populist us vs. them terms.

    BlueOregon 2009

  • Note that progressives here are unthinkingly using the standard Republican framing of taxation issues -- a bicycle fee would "penalize" the "worthy" among us -- as well as fulminating in faux populist us vs. them terms.

    BlueOregon 2009

  • Note that progressives here are unthinkingly using the standard Republican framing of taxation issues -- a bicycle fee would "penalize" the "worthy" among us -- as well as fulminating in faux populist us vs. them terms.

    BlueOregon 2009

Comments

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  • There are two ways to pronounce this word. Can you guess which one I hate more?

    January 27, 2007