as in to punish
to inflict a penalty on for a fault or crime
the player was penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct
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Recent Examples of penalize
In back-to-back last-second road losses, his team has been penalized 18 times for 173 total yards.
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Parker Gabriel, Denver Post, 22 Sep. 2025
Those announcements were quickly made after FCC chair Brendan Carr seemed to suggest that broadcasters should penalize Kimmel for his commentary.
—Jack Dunn, Variety, 22 Sep. 2025
Sometimes that gives officers the chance to get a new job before they are penalized.
—Katie Moore, Kansas City Star, 22 Sep. 2025
Austin, who had a tough game in Week 2, as well, was penalized for defensive pass interference and defensive holding in the first two drives of the game.
—Doug Kyed, Boston Herald, 21 Sep. 2025
See All Example Sentences for penalize
Recent Examples of Synonyms for penalize
punish
Verb
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The incident was caught on camera Thursday at an immigration court in New York City – fueling outrage as more families across the US get punished after showing up to their immigration court hearings.—
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When an authority is actively suppressing or punishing speech itself, the space open to debate gets much smaller very quickly.—
Cite this Entry
“Penalize.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/penalize. Accessed 1 Oct. 2025.
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