How to Use punitive in a Sentence

punitive

adjective

• Lobbyists complain that the bill would impose punitive taxes on the industry.
• The federal government will take punitive action against the company that polluted the river.
• The fall from third to fourth isn't too punitive - the fourth-worst record has a 48.1% shot at a top four pick.
  — Rahat Huq, Chron, 7 Feb. 2022
• That may take some of the punitive bite from the Western sanctions.
  — Allison Morrow, CNN, 2 Mar. 2022
• To put an end to the punitive drills, the teen had to do one thing: eat a pepperoni pizza.
  — Washington Post, 3 Jan. 2022
• The failure-to-pay penalty is less punitive than the one for failing to file.
  — Aimee Picchi, CBS News, 18 Apr. 2022
• But the punitive award wasn’t the highest Bellis could have imposed.
  — Laurel Calkins, Fortune, 10 Nov. 2022
• Newsom’s order opened the door for more punitive actions across the state.
  — Deyanira Nevárez Martínez, The Conversation, 2 Oct. 2024
• Extreme punitive measures The hijab has long been a point of contention in Iran.
  — Celine Alkhaldi, CNN, 2 Aug. 2023
• This drama could hardly have played out in a worse place; the city has endured some of the world's most punitive lockdowns.
  — Stephen Collinson, CNN, 11 Jan. 2022
• Barring you from the house is a serious case of punitive excess.
  — Carolyn Hax, Washington Post, 1 Sep. 2023
• But punitive measures hardly seem to have slowed their roll.
  — Adriana Lee, WWD, 4 Nov. 2024
• One justice, Mike Bolin, urged the Legislature to make the law more punitive.
  — al, 12 Jan. 2022
• In Georgia, 75% of proceeds from punitive damage verdicts go to the state.
  — Robert Burnson, BostonGlobe.com, 20 Aug. 2022
• None of the officers were removed from their jobs, and the reprimands were non-punitive, the spokesperson said.
  — Andrew Dyer, San Diego Union-Tribune, 12 Oct. 2022
• This was just the latest of a series of punitive measures meant to discourage refugees.
  — Ursula Lindsey, The New York Review of Books, 6 July 2022
• The court struck down Jim Crow laws, expanded the franchise, and erected guardrails to constrain the punitive machinery of the state.
  — Ian MacDougall, Harper’s Magazine , 28 Sep. 2022
• Her punitive response to the breakup is a different story, though, and strikes me as the cherry on the Jack’s-good-judgment sundae.
  — Carolyn Hax, Washington Post, 28 June 2023
• The 7th Circuit sent the case back to the trial court to determine whether the ordinance is also punitive.
  — Bruce Vielmetti, Journal Sentinel, 12 Aug. 2022
• Give me a break, the Club bank stock is currently at $75, with runway to go higher when the Fed lifts its punitive asset cap.
  — Jim Cramer, CNBC, 3 Dec. 2024
• About five minutes into the first 7 on 7 period, that crowd got a good look of Devin Brown running his first punitive lap of camp.
  — Nathan Baird, cleveland, 3 Aug. 2023
• These are crisp red flags around the boyfriend — of stubbornness, a punitive us-vs.-them worldview, a fragile ego and a taste for seizing control.
  — Carolyn Hax, Washington Post, 28 Oct. 2023
• The program helps those who may have been involved with the court or punitive systems, Hines said, but is also open to serving any kind of in-need youth.
  — Caroline Beck, The Indianapolis Star, 30 Aug. 2022
• The punitive nature of some of the laws that have been passed in Texas and other states would lead to women performing abortions on themselves.
  — Katherine Stuart Van Wormer, Washington Post, 20 June 2022
• That may be why so much of this story, despite the dedication of Vartolomei in the leading role, feels punitive and pinched.
  — The New Yorker, 6 May 2022
• The turn to criminal law and punitive measures to address public health issues is not new in and of itself.
  — Mary Ziegler and Aziza Ahmed, CNN, 23 Mar. 2022
• But the version that came out of committee this week lost that punitive component.
  — Kayla Dwyer, The Indianapolis Star, 2 Feb. 2024
• The harsh terms of that peace, with further punitive demands against the Germans in the Treaty of Versailles, sowed the seeds of a German discontent that would help launch the next world war 21 years later.
  — Nick Yetto, Smithsonian Magazine, 2 June 2023
• There’s nothing much worse than spending an evening with a group of people who are about to start a diet, a punitive exercise regime, a detox or a fast.
  — Time, 30 Dec. 2022
• In the century that followed, though, Argentina endured a succession of modest booms and punitive busts.
  — Jon Lee Anderson, The New Yorker, 2 Dec. 2024

Last Updated: 22 Dec 2024