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punitive

UK/ˈpju.nɪ.tɪv/US/ˈpju.nɪ.tɪv/
adjectiveC2Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #8,822 of 15,258leans written

Punitive means meant as a punishment, or harshly severe. Punitive damages, punitive taxes, a punitive expedition.

In law, punitive damages are awarded to punish rather than to compensate, and they are common in America and rare in Britain. Punitive taxes and punitive tariffs are the political use, meaning set high to hurt rather than to raise money.

Definitions of punitive

  1. 1adjectivepunitiveMeant as a punishment, or harshly severe.C2

    “The new taxes on small shops are punitive and will force many of them to close.”

punitive is a quality.

Remember it

PUNItive → it is there to PUNIsh

It is not meant to fix anything or put anything right. It is set that high only to punish, and it does.

hooks ontopunish

Where it comes from

Medieval Latin punitivus comes from punire, to punish, from poena, a penalty. Pain is a relative.

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *kʷey-

  2. Medieval Latin

    pūnitīvus

  3. Middle French

    punitif

  4. English, today

    punitive

Built from

  • pūniō · Latin — to punish

From Middle French punitif, from Medieval Latin pūnitīvus, from pūniō (“to punish”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

punitive in the wild

  • Although the purpose of punitive damages is not to compensate the plaintiff, the plaintiff will receive all or some of the punitive damages in award.

    Punitive damages

  • However, punitive damages awarded under court systems that recognize them may be difficult to enforce in jurisdictions that do not recognize them.

    Punitive damages

  • The appeals court sided with the Does that the act was in fact punitive and violated ex post facto.

    Smith v. Doe

  • The first expedition to Palembang was a punitive expedition carried out Dutch forces, including the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army, against the Palembang Sultanate in 1819.

    First expedition to Palembang

  • The Pedir Expedition (Dutch: Pedir-expeditie) was a punitive expedition of the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army against Pedir (Acheh) in 1897 and 1898.

    Pedir Expedition

1 / 2

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the pūniō family

punish

punitive — used about once every 3,827 pages · #8,822 · point at the bar for the others