Now updated for CSW19. New words, if any, and new inflections of existing words, are shown in red.
| aby | to pay as a penalty > ABYS, ABYING, ABOUGHT. (ABIES exists as a fir tree). |
| abye | to pay the penalty for > ABYES, ABYING, ABOUGHT (not ABYED*). |
| amearst | see AMERCE. |
| amende | a fine or reparation paid. |
| amerce | to punish by a fine whose amount is fixed by the court; broadly, to punish > AMERCES, AMERCING, AMERCED or (Spenser) AMEARST. [L. merces, wages] |
| amerceable amerciable | liable to be amerced. |
| amercement amerciament | the infliction of a fine. |
| amercer | one who AMERCES, fines, punishes. |
| amerciament | see AMERCEMENT. |
| attainder | the loss of civil rights, formerly a result of outlawry or a death sentence. |
| baculine | pertaining to the stick or cane; pertaining to flogging. |
| banish | to expel, exile. |
| bastinade bastinado | to punish by beating on the soles of the feet. |
| behead | to cut off the head of. |
| beheadal | the act of beheading. |
| bootikin | (Scots) a kind of boot used for torture. |
| bowstring | the string of a bow; (verb) to strangle with a bowstring > BOWSTRINGS, BOWSTRINGING, BOWSTRINGED or BOWSTRUNG. |
| cang cangue | a wooden collar used to punish criminals in China. |
| catasta | a scaffold or stage for torture or selling slaves. |
| commutation | the act of commuting. |
| commute | to change a sentence (esp. the death sentence) for a less severe punishment. |
| convictism | the policy or practice of transporting convicts to penal settlements. |
| cowhide | to punish by whipping with a cowhide. |
| crucifier | one who crucifies. |
| crucifixion | execution by crucifying. |
| crucify | to put to death on a cross. |
| custodial | of or like custody e.g. a custodial sentence. |
| darbies | handcuffs. [From the rigid terms of a 16th century English usurer of that name]. N.B. no DARBY*. |
| decapitate | to cut off the head of. |
| decimate | to punish a group by killing every tenth person. |
| decimation | the act of decimating. |
| decimator | one who decimates. |
| decollate | to behead. |
| draconian draconic | of, relating to, or characteristic of Draco or the severe code of laws held to have been framed by him. |
| draconism | being DRACONIC in the administration of laws. |
| duress duresse | hardship; constraint; restraint of liberty. |
| electrocute | to execute (a criminal) by electricity. |
| electrocution | execution by electricity. |
| eriach eric | , erick a blood-fine paid by a murderer in old Irish law. |
| execute | to put to death esp. judicially. |
| execution | the act of executing. |
| exile | to banish from one's own country. |
| exilic | relating to EXILE. |
| feague | to beat, whip. |
| finable fineable | liable or subject to a fine; as, a finable person or offense. |
| fineableness | the state of being FINEABLE. |
| flagellate | to whip; to scourge. |
| flay | to strip off the skin from. |
| flog | to whip. |
| floggable | of an offence, punishable by flogging. |
| forcipation | torture by pinching with forceps. |
| forfeit | a penalty for a crime, or failure to fulfil some condition; (verb) to lose as a penalty. |
| forfeitable | that can be forfeited. |
| forfeiture | the act of forfeiting. |
| fusillation | death by shooting. |
| gallows | a wooden frame for hanging criminals > GALLOWSES. |
| gallus | (Scots) deserving of the gallows; (in the pl. GALLUSES) trouser braces. |
| ganch gaunch | an impaling apparatus; (verb, obs.) to execute by impaling on stakes or hooks. |
| gating | punishment by gating, keeping in. |
| gaunch | see GANCH. |
| gibbet | a gallows; (verb) to hang on a gibbet > GIBBETS, GIBBETING or GIBBETTING, GIBBETED or GIBBETTED. |
| guillotine | an instrument for beheading consisting of a weighted blade allowed to drop between two tall grooved uprights; (verb) to behead with a guillotine. |
| impale | to pierce with a pointed object esp. as a form of execution. |
| impalement | the act of impaling. |
| jambok sjambok | a rhinoceros-hide whip; (verb) to beat with this. |
| jankers | a military punishment of detention etc. for defaulters. [JANKER exists as a long pole for transporting logs]. |
| jougs | (Scots) an old instrument of punishment consisting of a hinged iron collar locked round an offender's neck and attached by a chain to a wall or post. N.B. no JOUG*. |
| keelhale keelhaul | to punish by dragging under the keel of a ship. |
| knout | to flog; to scourge. |
| kourbash kurbash | a kind of whip; (verb) to whip with a kurbash. |
| lapidate | to stone to death. |
| lapidation | the act of stoning. |
| noyade | drowning, especially of many persons together as form of execution. |
| nub | a knob; (verb, obs.) to hang. |
| ostracise | to practise OSTRACISM. |
| ostracism | banishment by popular vote, -- a means adopted at Athens to rid the city of a person whose talent and influence gave umbrage. |
| outlawry | the act of putting someone outside the protection of the law. |
| patibulary | of or pertaining to the gallows. |
| penal | pertaining to punishment > PENALLY. |
| penality | the state of being penal; liability to punishment. |
| penological | relating to PENOLOGY, the study of crime and punishment. |
| penology poenology | the study of crime and punishment. |
| petalism | a method of ostracism practised in ancient Syracuse, the name being written on an olive leaf. |
| pilliwinks pilniewinks pinniewinkle pinnywinkle | an instrument of torture designed to crush fingers. |
| pillorise pillorize | to pillory. |
| pillory | a wooden frame with holes for head and hands used as punishment; (verb) to put in a pillory. |
| pilniewinks | see PILLIWINKS. |
| pinnywinkle | see PILLIWINKS. |
| pizzle | a bull's penis used as instrument of punishment by flogging. |
| poenology | see PENOLOGY. |
| postexilic | relating to the period after an EXILE, esp. of the Jews. |
| prexilic | relating to the period before an EXILE, esp. of the Jews. |
| punish | to impose a penalty on in requital for wrongdoing. |
| punishable | worthy of punishment. |
| punition | punishment. |
| punitory | punishing; tending to punishment; punitive. |
| rack | an instrument for stretching, esp an instrument of torture; (verb) to stretch on the rack. |
| rustication | the action of banishing, or the state of being banished, into the country. |
| scarpines | an instrument of torture for the feet. N.B. no SCARPINE*. |
| scourge | to punish severely esp. with a whip. |
| sjambok | see JAMBOK. |
| stockpunisht | (Shakesp.) punished by being put in the stocks. |
| stocks | a device for holding delinquents by the ankles, and often the wrists. |
| stonable | carrying the penalty of being stoned, i.e. pelted with stones. |
| strappado | a form of torture in which victim is left dangling from a rope; (verb) to torture by this > STRAPPADOS or STRAPPADOES, STRAPPADOING, STRAPPADOED. |
| suspercollate | to hang by the neck. [From the abbreviation of suspendatur per collum (sus. per coll.), 'let him be hanged by the neck', in the entry of a capital sentence in a jailer's books]. |
| sweatbox | a narrow box or cell in which a prisoner is placed for punishment. |
| talion | (Lat.) a punishment identical to the crime e.g. death sentence for murder. |
| talionic | pertaining to revenge in kind. |
| thumbkin | an instrument of torture for compressing the thumb; a thumbscrew. |
| thumbscrew | an instrument of torture for compressing the thumb by a screw. |
| toco toko | punishment. |
| treadmill treadwheel | a machine with a continuously moving surface of adjustable speed used for exercising on by running or walking; used as a punishment in jails and also available in the more expensive gyms. |
| tumbrel tumbril | a vehicle carrying condemned persons to a place of execution. |
| unamerced | not subject to a fine. |
| vapulate | to flog; to be flogged. |
| weregild wergeld wergelt wergild | (OE) money paid by a killer's family to the family of the victim to prevent a blood feud; the cash value of a man's life. |