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kingdom, or a population; to lessen speed, rank, fortune. Charity . . . shall lessen his punishment. Calamy. St. Paul chose to magnify his office when ill men conspired to lessen it. Atterbury.

To strike with repeated blows for punishment; to flog; to whip or conquer, as in a pugilistic encounter. [Colloq. or Low] Carlyle. Thackeray.

To inflict punishment upon, especially death, without the forms of law, as when a mob captures and hangs a suspected person. See Lynch law.

. The act or practice by private persons of inflicting punishment for crimes or offenses, without due process of law.

An evil doer; one who commits a crime; one subject to public prosecution and punishment; a criminal.

k out. (a) To designate, as by a mark; to select; as, the ringleaders were marked out for punishment. (b) To obliterate or cancel with a mark; as, to mark out an item in an account. -- To mark time (Mil.), to keep the time of a marching step by moving the legs alternately without advancing.

To cause to go to the masthead as a punishment. Marryat.

right to claim as reward; to deserve; sometimes, to deserve in a bad sense; as, to merit punishment. "This kindness merits thanks." Shak.

h, severe, afflictive, or calamitous; as, the mitigation of pain, grief, rigor, severity, punishment, or penalty.

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

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

e obliging power of the law is neither founded in, nor to be measured by, the rewards and punishments annexed to it. South. Religion obliges men to the practice of those virtues which conduce to the preservation of our health. Tillotson.

Liable to censure; exposed to punishment; reprehensible; blameworthy. "The contrived and interested schemes of ...obnoxious authors." Bp. Fell. All are obnoxious, and this faulty land, Like fainting Hester, does before you stand Watching your scepter. Waller.

rain from bestowing notice or attention upon; to neglect; to pass over without censure or punishment; to excuse. The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked. Acts xvii. 30 (Rev. Ver. ) They overlook truth in the judgments they pass. Atterbury. The pardoning and overlooking of faults. Addison.

Punishment suffered or denounced; suffering 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.…

ing; 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 indicating that one has no…

Punishment; chastisement. [R.]

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.