*pena*

a. [ L. poenalis, fr. poena punishment: cf. F. pénal. See Pain. ] Of or pertaining to punishment, to penalties, or to crimes and offenses; pertaining to criminal jurisprudence: as: (a) Enacting or threatening punishment; as, a penal statue; the penal code. (b) Incurring punishment; subject to a penalty; as, a penal act or offense. (c) Inflicted as punishment; used as a means of punishment; as, a penal colony or settlement. “Adamantine chains and penal fire.” Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

Penal code (Law), a code of laws concerning crimes and offenses and their punishment. --
Penal laws,
Penal statutes (Law), laws prohibiting 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. LL. poenalitas. See Penalty. ] The quality or state of being penal; liability to punishment. Sir T. Browne. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The act of punishing.
Syn. -- punishment, penalty. [ WordNet 1.5 ]

v. t. 1. To make penal. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Sport.) To put a penalty on. See Penalty, 3. [ Eng. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

adj. Subjected to a penalty. [ Narrower terms: fined, mulcted ] [ WordNet 1.5 +PJC ]

adv. In a penal manner. [ 1913 Webster ]

n.; pl. Penalties [ F. pénalité. See Penal. ] 1. Penal retribution; punishment for crime or offense; the suffering in person or property which is annexed by law or judicial decision to the commission of a crime, offense, or trespass. [ 1913 Webster ]

Death is the penalty imposed. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The suffering, or the sum to be forfeited, to which a person subjects himself by covenant or agreement, in case of nonfulfillment of stipulations; forfeiture; fine. [ 1913 Webster ]

The penalty and forfeit of my bond. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A handicap. [ Sporting Cant ] [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ The term penalty is in law mostly applied to a pecuniary punishment. [ 1913 Webster ]

Bill of pains and penalties. See under Bill. --
On penalty of, or
Under penalty of, on pain of; with exposure to the penalty of, in case of transgression. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OF. penance, peneance, L. paenitentia repentance. See Penitence. ] 1. Repentance. [ Obs. ] Wyclif (Luke xv. 7). [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Pain; sorrow; suffering. [ Obs. ] “Joy or penance he feeleth none.” Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Eccl.) A means of repairing a sin committed, and obtaining pardon for it, consisting partly in the performance of expiatory rites, partly in voluntary submission to a punishment corresponding to the transgression, imposed by a confessor or other ecclesiastical authority. Penance is the fourth of seven sacraments in the Roman Catholic Church. Schaff-Herzog Encyc. [ 1913 Webster ]

And bitter penance, with an iron whip. Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

Quoth he, “The man hath penance done,
And penance more will do.” Coleridge. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Hence: Any act performed by a person to atone for an offense to another; an act of atonement. [ Colloq. ] [ PJC ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Penanced ] To impose penance; to punish. “Some penanced lady elf.” Keats. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Free from penance. [ R. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

[ Prob. fr. Malay pīnang līar. ] A kind of walking stick made from the stem of an East Asiatic palm (Licuala acutifida). [ Webster 1913 Suppl. ]

[ From the native name. ] (Bot.) The betel nut. Balfour (Cyc. of India). [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. pene, paene, almost + E. annular. ] Nearly annular; having nearly the form of a ring. “Penannular relics.” D. Wilson. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Penal. [ Obs. ] Gauden. [ 1913 Webster ]

‖n. pl. [ L. ] (Rom. Antiq.) The household gods of the ancient Romans. They presided over the home and the family hearth. See Lar. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ OF. penant, peneant. See Penitent. ] A penitent. [ Obs. ] Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Probably a corruption fr. G. vielliebchen, LG. vielliebken, or D. veelliebken, a philopena, literally, much loved; but influenced by Gr. fi`los a friend, and L. poena penalty, from an idea that the gift was a penalty of friendship or love. ] A present or gift which is made as a forfeit in a social game that is played in various ways; also, the game itself. [ Written also fillipeen and phillippine. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ One of the ways may be stated as follows: A person finding a nut with two kernels eats one, and gives the other to a person of the opposite sex, and then whichever says philopena first at the next meeting wins the present. The name is also applied to the kernels eaten. [ 1913 Webster ]