penalize

penalize, fine, amerce, mulct mean to punish by depriving of something.

Penalize usually presupposes a violation of laws or rules intended to maintain discipline or fair treatment for all; it implies exaction by an authority of a pecuniary penalty or a forfeiture of an advantage or, especially in games, the imposition of a handicap

{

penalize late taxpayers by adding interest to their unpaid taxes

}

{

penalize a football team fifteen yards for holding

}

Fine and amerce are chiefly found in technical legal use in reference to court cases, but their implications in extended use are not materially different. They and their corresponding nouns fine and amercement are distinguishable in that fine implies that the amount exacted is, within certain limits, prescribed by the law, while amerce and amercement indicate that it has been left to the discretion of the judge

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violators of the municipal parking ordinances may be fined from one to ten dollars

}

{

the judge amerced the offender in the sum of fifty dollars

}

{

millions of spirits for his fault amerced of heaven— Milton

}

Mulct implies subjection to a superior power which can legally or illegally exact a penalty (usually in money) for a breach of discipline or for failure to comply with its edicts. Sometimes it merely implies a fine or amercement or a withholding of money due

{

nonconformists were mulcted for attendance at services of their own communion

}

Often the word suggests forcible imposition or exaction of a heavy or oppressive penalty

{

the colonizers mulcted the natives of their gold whenever the latter showed signs of resistance

}

Analogous words: *punish, discipline, correct, chasten