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Of or pertaining to punishment, to penalties, or to crimes and offenses; pertaining to criminal jurisprudence: as:

The quality or state of being penal; lability to punishment. Sir T. Browne.

Penal retribution; punishment for crime or offense; the suffering in person or property which is annexed by law or judicial decision to the commission of a crime, offense, or trespass. Death is the penalty imposed. Milton.

sisting partly in the performance of expiatory rites, partly in voluntary submission to a punishment corresponding to the transgression. Penance is the fourth of seven sacraments in the Roman Catholic Church. Schaff-Herzog Encyc. And bitter penance, with an iron whip. Spenser. Quoth he, "The man hath penance done, And…

Used for punishment, discipline, and reformation. "Penitentiary houses." Blackstone.

The science or art of punishment. [Written also poenology.]

A well-known, pungently aromatic condiment, the dried berry, either whole or powdered, of the Piper nigrum.

A variety of edible seaweed (Laurencia pinnatifida) distinguished for its pungency. [Scot.] Lindley.

ass, or garden cress, Lepidium sativum; -- called also pepperwort. All the species have a pungent flavor.

Hot; pungent; peppery. Swift.

An aromatic and pungent plant of the genus Mentha (M. piperita), much used in medicine and confectionery.

Of or pertaining to pepper; having the qualities of pepper; hot; pungent.

The punctuation point [.] that marks the end of a complete sentence, or of an abbreviated word.

r afflict; to beset with cruelty or malignity; to harass; especially, to afflict, harass, punish, or put to death, for adherence to a particular religious creed or mode of worship. Do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you. Matt. v. 44.

Punched; pierced with, or having, holes.

The act of punching or piercing with a pointed instrument; as, pertusion of a vein. [R.] Arbuthnot.

A pickle of various vegetables with pungent species, -- originally made in the East Indies.

A military punishment, formerly resorted to, in which the offender was forced to stand with one foot on a pointed stake.

t thou in this pickle" Shak. -- To put a rod in pickle, to prepare a particular reproof, punishment, or penalty for future application.

To set in, or punish with, the pillory; to pillory. [R.]