penalty

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   the disadvantage or painful consequences of an action or condition

   They neglected their health and paid the penalty.

2. 2
   noun

   A legal sentence.

   The penalty for his crime was to do hard labor.

3. 3
   noun

   A punishment for violating rules of procedure.

   Was it so irreconcilable, Warwick wondered, as still to peal out the curfew bell, which at nine o'clock at night had clamorously warned all negroes, slave or free, that it was unlawful for them to be abroad after that hour, under penalty of imprisonment or whipping?

4. 4
   noun

   A disadvantageous consequence of a previous event.

   "But you, my noble, my generous girl!" exclaimed Lord Avonleigh, "I dare not let you pay the penalty of my former folly."

5. 5
   noun

   the act of punishing

6. 6
   noun

   (games) a handicap or disadvantage that is imposed on a competitor (or a team) for an infraction of the rules of the game

7. 7
   noun

   a payment required for not fulfilling a contract

8. 8
   noun

   A payment forfeited for an early withdrawal from an account or an investment.

Etymology

From Middle French pénalité, from pénal, from Latin poenālis, from poena, borrowing of Ancient Greek ποινή (poinḗ), from Proto-Hellenic *kʷoinā́, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷoynéh₂, comprising *kʷey- + *-néh₂.