PENAL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does penal mean? 

• PENAL (adjective)
  The adjective PENAL has 3 senses:

1. of or relating to punishment

2. serving as or designed to impose punishment

3. (of an act or offense) subject to punishment by law

  Familiarity information: PENAL used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PENAL (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Of or relating to punishment

Classified under:

Relational adjectives (pertainyms)

Context example:

penal code

Pertainym:

punishment (the act of punishing)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Serving as or designed to impose punishment

Context example:

the juvenile was sentenced to six months in a penal institution

Similar:

punitive; punitory (inflicting punishment)

Sense 3

Meaning:

(of an act or offense) subject to punishment by law

Synonyms:

penal; punishable

Context example:

a penal offense

Similar:

illegal (prohibited by law or by official or accepted rules)

 Context examples 

A penal institution maintained by the government.

(Correctional Institute, NCI Thesaurus)

This person appears to have been none other than Beddington, the famous forger and cracksman, who, with his brother, had only recently emerged from a five years’ spell of penal servitude.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Remember, Watson that though we have so homely a thing as a goose at one end of this chain, we have at the other a man who will certainly get seven years’ penal servitude unless we can establish his innocence.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The American, Abe Slaney, was condemned to death at the winter assizes at Norwich, but his penalty was changed to penal servitude in consideration of mitigating circumstances, and the certainty that Hilton Cubitt had fired the first shot.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)