Dictionary entry

Punitive

Webster's Dictionary 1913

Pu″ni‐tive (?), a. Of or pertaining to punishment; involving, awarding, or inflicting punishment; as, punitive law or justice.

If death be punitive, so, likewise, is the necessity imposed upon man of toiling for his subsistence. I. Taylor.

We shall dread a blow from the punitive hand. Bagehot.