from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- transitive v. To subject to a penalty, especially for infringement of a law or official regulation. See Synonyms at punish.
- transitive v. To impose a handicap on; place at a disadvantage.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- v. To subject to a penalty, especially for the infringement of a rule or regulation.
- v. To impose a handicap on.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- transitive v. To make penal.
- transitive v. To put a penalty on. See Penalty, 3.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To lay under a penalty, in ease of violation, falsification, or the like: said of regulations, statements, etc.; subject, expose, or render liable to a penalty: said of persons. Also spelled penalise.
- To affix what amounts to a penalty to some act that is not in itself a penal offense; to subject to a disadvantage; handicap.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- v. impose a penalty on; inflict punishment on
From penal + -ize. (Wiktionary)