Search the Dictionary

To part with unintentionally or unwillingly, as by accident, misfortune, negligence, penalty, forfeit, etc.; to be deprived of; as, to lose money from one's purse or pocket, or in business or gaming; to lose an arm or a leg by amputation; to lose men in battle. Fair Venus wept the sad disaster Of having lost her favori…

ictive, or calamitous; as, the mitigation of pain, grief, rigor, severity, punishment, or penalty.

A fine or penalty, esp. a pecuniary punishment or penalty.

Imposing a pecuniary penalty; consisting of, or paid as, a fine. Fines, or some known mulctuary punishments. Sir W. Temple.

A bond with a condition annexed, and a penalty for nonfulfillment. In a larger sense, it is an acknowledgment of a duty to pay a certain sum or do a certain things. Days of obligation. See under Day.

roducing the appropriate or designed effect; efficacious; as, an operative dose, rule, or penalty.

Restitution for cattle; a penalty for taking away cattle. Cowell.

or evil inflicted as a punishment for crime, or connected with the commission of a crime; penalty. Chaucer. We will, by way of mulct or pain, lay it upon him. Bacon. Interpose, on pain of my displeasure. Dryden. None shall presume to fly, under pain of death. Addison.

The act of pardoning; forgiveness, as of an offender, or of an offense; release from penalty; remission of punishment; absolution. Pardon, my lord, for me and for my tidings. Shak. But infinite in pardon was my judge. Milton. Used in expressing courteous denial or contradiction; as, I crave your pardon; or in indicatin…

Admitting of pardon; not requiring the excution of penalty; venial; excusable; -- applied to the offense or to the offender; as, a pardonable fault, or culprit.

Relating to money; monetary; as, a pecuniary penalty; a pecuniary reward. Burke.

Incurring punishment; subject to a penalty; as, a penalact of offense.

To put a penalty on. See Penalty, 3. [Eng.]

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

disease. [Obs.] Johnson. Popular action (Law), an action in which any person may sue for penalty imposed by statute. Blackstone.

The penalty ascribed for the offense of præmunire. Wolsey incurred a præmunire, and forfeited his honor, estate, and life. South.

To impose a penalty upon; to afflict with pain, loss, or suffering for a crime or fault, either with or without a view to the offender's amendment; to cause to suffer in retribution; to chasten; as, to punish traitors with death; a father punishes his child for willful disobedience. A greater power Now ruled him, punis…

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.

Released from obligation, charge, penalty, etc.; free; clear; absolved; acquitted. Chaucer. The owner of the ox shall be quit. Ex. xxi. 28.

ion of a prisoner, or for goods captured by an enemy; payment for freedom from restraint, penalty, or forfeit. Thy ransom paid, which man from death redeems. Milton. His captivity in Austria, and the heavy ransom he paid for his liberty. Sir J. Davies/.