retributive

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Wednesday’s brief, according to the Post report, made other charges about the trial, saying the judge’s “closing remarks demonstrated that Mr. Smollett’s sentencing took on a personal retributive tone.”

From Washington Times • Mar. 2, 2023

It develops here as an agonizing moral question, one that our retributive correctional culture would rather not have to debate.

From Washington Post • Nov. 23, 2022

The ruling drew on the Eighth Amendment and common law, concluding that “such an execution has questionable retributive value, presents no example to others, and thus has no deterrence value, and simply offends humanity.”

From Slate • Oct. 24, 2022

A compassionate society must recognize the harm caused by a criminal justice system built on retributive rather than restorative justice.

From Seattle Times • Jun. 10, 2022

I have gone to each officer of that Regiment demanding that they send a retributive expedition, but none evinces the slightest interest in the undertaking.

From "The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves" by M.T. Anderson