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Webster’s Dictionary (1828)



107 words match “PENAL”

BILL n.
uch statement; as, a place within the bills of mortality of London. -- Bill of pains and penalties, a special act of a legislature which inflicts a punishment less than death upon persons supposed to be guilty of treason or felony, without any conviction in the ordinary course of judicial proceedings. Bouvier. Wharton…
BRIDEWELL n.
l built in 1553 near St. Bride's (or Bridget's) well, in London, which was subsequently a penal workhouse.
CENTESIMATION n.
The infliction of the death penalty upon one person in every hundred, as in cases of mutiny.
COMMUTATION n.
The change of a penalty or punishment by the pardoning power of the State; as, the commutation of a sentence of death to banishment or imprisonment. Suits are allowable in the spiritual courts for money agreed to be given as a commutation for penance. Blackstone.
COMMUTE v.
To exchange; to put or substitute something else in place of, as a smaller penalty, obligation, or payment, for a greater, or a single thing for an aggregate; hence; to lessen; to diminish; as, to commute a sentence of death to one of imprisonment for life; to commute tithes; to commute charges for fares. The sounds wa…
CONDEMN v. 2 definitions
ce against; to sentence to punishment, suffering, or loss; to doom; -- with to before the penalty. Driven out from bliss, condemned In this abhorred deep to utter woe. Milton. To each his sufferings; all are men, Condemned alike to groan. Gray. And they shall condemn him to death. Matt. xx. 18. The thief condemned, in…
CONSTRUCTION n.
. might, by the sort of construction that would be put on this act, become liable to the penalties of treason. Hallam. Strictly, the term [construction] signifies determining the meaning and proper effect of language by a consideration of the subject matter and attendant circumstances in connection with the words empl…
CONVICT n.
A criminal sentenced to penal servitude.
CONVICTISM n.
The policy or practice of transporting convicts to penal settlements. "The evils of convictism." W. Howitt.
CORPORAL a.
ral punishment (law), punishment applied to the body of the offender, including the death penalty, whipping, and imprisonment.
CORRECTIVE a. 2 definitions
Having the power to correct; tending to rectify; as, corrective penalties. Mulberries are pectoral, corrective of billious alkali. Arbuthnot.
CUSTODY n.
Judicial or penal safe-keeping. Jailer, take him to thy custody. Shak.
DANGER n. 2 definitions
Power to harm; subjection or liability to penalty. [Obs.] See In one's danger, below. You stand within his danger, do you not Shak. Covetousness of gains hath brought [them] in dangerof this statute. Robynson (More's Utopia).
DEAD a.
line drawn within or around a military prison, to cross which involves for a prisoner the penalty of being instantly shot. -- Dead load (Civil Engin.), a constant, motionless load, as the weight of a structure, in distinction from a moving load, as a train of cars, or a variable pressure, as of wind. -- Dead march (M…
DISCHARGE n. 2 definitions
of a debt, obligation, office, and the like; acquittal. Too secure of our discharge From penalty. Milton.
DISCIPLINE n. 3 definitions
nt of methods of correction against one guilty of ecclesiastical offenses; reformatory or penal action toward a church member.
DISGUISE n.
ealment or of deception; as, persons doing unlawful acts in disguise are subject to heavy penalties. There is no passion steals into the heart more imperceptibly and covers itself under more disguises, than pride. Addison.
DISPUNISHABLE a.
Without penal restraint; not punishable. [R.] Swift.
DOMEBOOK n.
King Alfred. It is supposed to have contained the principal maxims of the common law, the penalties for misdemeanors, and the forms of judicial proceedings. Domebook was probably a general name for book of judgments. Burrill.
DOOM n. 3 definitions
Judgment; judicial sentence; penal decree; condemnation. The first dooms of London provide especially the recovery of cattle belonging to the citizens. J. R. Green. Now against himself he sounds this doom. Shak.
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