The Collaborative International Dictionary
Penal \Pe"nal\, a. [L. poenalis, fr. poena punishment: cf. F. p['e]nal. See Pain.] Of or pertaining to punishment, to penalties, or to crimes and offenses; pertaining to criminal jurisprudence: as:
Enacting or threatening punishment; as, a penal statue; the penal code.
Incurring punishment; subject to a penalty; as, a penalact of offense.
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Inflicted as punishment; used as a means of punishment; as, a penal colony or settlement. ``Adamantine chains and penal fire.''
--Milton.Penal code (Law), a code of laws concerning crimes and offenses and their punishment.
Penal laws, Penal statutes (Law), laws prohibited certain acts, and imposing penalties for committing them.
Penal servitude, imprisonment with hard labor, in a prison, in lieu of transportation. [Great Brit.]
Penal suit, Penal action (Law), a suit for penalties.
Usage examples of "penal statutes".
Such was the vulgar pronunciation which the stern Gardiner maintained by penal statutes in the university of Cambridge: but the monosyllable represented to an Attic ear the bleating of sheep, and a bellwether is better evidence than a bishop or a chancellor.
Such a reproach has sullied the clemency of Nicephorus, who relaxed in their favor the severity of the penal statutes, nor will his character sustain the honor of a more liberal motive.
The penal statutes were directed against the ministers, the assemblies, and the persons of the heretics.