retribution
/rɛtrɪˈbjuːʃ(ə)n
/noun [mass noun]
Punishment inflicted on someone as vengeance for a wrong or criminal act: employees asked not to be named, saying they feared retribution Minos threatened war against Athens in retribution for his son’s death divine retribution...
- Every fiber of her cried out for revenge, for retribution, for something to let her strike back.
- In that regard, not only did they open themselves up to ethical retribution, but to potential criminal prosecution under both federal and local law.
- The lex talionus, or law of retribution, teaches that the punishment should fit the crime.
Synonyms
punishment, penalty, nemesis, fate, doom, one's just deserts, due reward, just reward, wages;
justice, retributive justice, poetic justice, judgement, reckoning;
revenge, reprisal, requital, retaliation, payback, vengeance, an eye for an eye (and a tooth for a tooth), tit for tat, measure for measure;
redress, reparation, restitution, recompense, repayment, damages, satisfaction, remedy, comeback, atonement, amends
informal one's comeuppance
archaic measure
Derivatives
retributive
/ adjective ...- Whether nature or nurture, a common point was the change in attitudes regarding the purpose of justice, shifting from retributive to reformative intent.
- It is important to note, however, that Brown held that the definition of punishment should not be limited to retributive actions.
- You have distinguished between a restorative form of justice and a retributive form of justice.
retributory
- My own moral intuition wishes that people in general, and law professors in particular, understood retributory bloodlust as a natural human reaction, but one that we should learn to suppress, not to indulge in.
- Blaming the self may allow the perceived deflection of interpersonal hostility and result in a shield against retributory threat from the external environment.
- In the principles of justice, the concept of retributory justice is important to the victims and the society.
Origin
Late Middle English (also in the sense 'recompense for merit or a service'): from late Latin retributio(n-), from retribut- 'assigned again', from the verb retribuere, from re- 'back' + tribuere 'assign'.
Rhymes
- readathon
- read-a-thon
- read-athon
- read between the lines
- readdress
- readeption
- reader
- reader-aloud
- reader-alouder
- reader-friendly
- readerly
- reader-printer
- reader-response
- readership
- reader-writer
- readhere
- readhesion
- native companion
- native currant
- native daphne
- native doctor
- native dog
- native flax
- native forest
- native friendship center