How to Use retributive in a Sentence

retributive

adjective
Definition of retributivenext
Synonyms for retributivenext
  • That could backfire if GOP voters spy a case of unequal and retributive justice.
    — The Editorial Board, WSJ, 10 Aug. 2022
  • Unlike their last meeting, at Fenway Park a month ago, there were no spikes-up slides, no retributive fastballs in the back and no bench-clearing brawls.
    — New York Times, 8 May 2018
  • The sanctions send a clear retributive message to Russia and are aimed at serving as a deterrent.
    — Eric Tucker and Aamer Madhani, The Christian Science Monitor, 15 Apr. 2021
  • The measures are intended to send a clear retributive message to Russia and to deter similar acts in the future.
    — Aamer Madhani and Eric Tucker, USA TODAY, 16 Apr. 2021
  • In addition to the strike missions, there were F/A-18s on combat air patrol to be on guard for retributive strikes, and refueling tankers were ready to support the US and allied aircraft in the strike.
    — Sean Gallagher, Ars Technica, 18 Apr. 2018
  • But that’s a system that doesn’t think of punishment as having a punitive or retributive aim, but rather thinks of itself as having the aim of preventing future crimes of that kind.
    — Isaac Chotiner, The New Yorker, 4 Sep. 2020
  • However, the Trump administration's policies so far have veered from the idea of a second chance in favor of a more retributive approach.
    — Jennifer Hansler, CNN, 7 June 2018
  • India carries out retributive strikes on terror camps across the LoC in Pakistan’s Balakot region.
    — Manavi Kapur, Quartz India, 5 Aug. 2019
  • The retributive idea that wrongdoing will be punished is what makes Christian and Muslim ideas of hell — and Hindu ideas about karma — morally plausible.
    — New York Times, 28 June 2022
  • But others – perhaps including a man who claimed to have an entire garage full of the bikes – regard their borrowing as a kind of retributive justice against the massive company.
    — David Z. Morris, Fortune, 6 Jan. 2018
  • End the racial and economic violence, and the demand for retributive physical violence falls as well.
    — The Tylt, AL.com, 9 June 2017
  • The conventional superhero brings peace through retributive violence; when Batman saves Gotham, much of the city is destroyed.
    — Jia Tolentino, The New Yorker, 29 Apr. 2017
  • Chicago, then, is in the throes of a culture — maybe not so much retributive as reactive — that is killing people, sometimes multiple people, almost every day.
    — Chris Jones, chicagotribune.com, 16 June 2017
  • Men’s-rights activists love to imagine apocalyptic scenarios in which this sort of retributive violence plays out on a global scale.
    — David Futrelle, The Cut, 17 Aug. 2017
  • All this tit for tat will further undermine our institutions and polarize the nation—but such is the nature of retributive politics.
    — Kimberley A. Strassel, WSJ, 11 Aug. 2022
  • But in addition to the retributive intent of putting someone in prison, Graves also cites rehabilitative goals.
    — Courtland Milloy, Washington Post, 9 May 2023
  • There is no plan for dealing with the unrest of Alawites in Syria if he were deposed — except presumably the hope that the retributive violence of unleashed Sunni fanatics sent them running away as refugees.
    — Michael Brendan Dougherty, National Review, 11 Sep. 2020
  • When the lesson shifts to discussing restorative versus retributive justice, the students perk up and engage in a spirited debate, their voices excited and urgent.
    — Sophie Hills, The Christian Science Monitor, 12 Jan. 2023
  • The sanctions, presumably intended to send a clear retributive message to Russia and to deter similar acts in the future, come amid an already tense relationship between the U.S. and Russia.
    — Eric Tucker, Fortune, 15 Apr. 2021
  • Such crimes reasonably elicit a demand for retributive justice.
    — Charles Fain Lehman, National Review, 18 Apr. 2021
  • The current retributive model focuses only on punishment for past crimes.
    — Kenneth E. Hartman, Harper's magazine, 16 Sep. 2019
  • Instead, anger against the state is being converted into retributive politics between social groups.
    — Ajay Gudavarthy, Quartz India, 2 Sep. 2019
  • Schaeffer’s violent past catches up to him every decade or two, in the form of professional assassins bent on collecting payoffs from retributive mobsters.
    — Tom Nolan, WSJ, 31 Dec. 2020
  • The sanctions, presumably intended to send a clear retributive message to Russia and to deter similar acts in the future, are certain to exacerbate an already tense relationship between the U.S. and Russia.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 15 Apr. 2021
  • Amplifying the sense of urgency, lawmakers and veterans’ groups working on evacuation efforts said, is an uptick in retributive attacks by the Taliban.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 12 Oct. 2021
  • In return for an honest accounting of past crimes, the committee offered amnesty, establishing what Archbishop Tutu called the principle of restorative — rather than retributive — justice.
    — New York Times, 26 Dec. 2021
  • By turning the proceedings into a proxy trial of Maxwell — calling a witness who testified Maxwell attempted to enlist him in a plot to murder his stepdaughter — Radney valorized Burns as an agent of retributive justice.
    — Stephen Phillips, latimes.com, 14 June 2019
  • John Walsh’s campaign began just as the U.S. criminal legal system pivoted away from rehabilitation and toward a purely retributive model of justice in the 1970s.
    — Paul M. Renfro, The New Republic, 13 Aug. 2021
  • The second emphasizes how the United States and its European allies, through sanctions and other retributive measures, are trying to destroy Russia and must be counteracted with patriotic defiance and self-reliance.
    — Washington Post, 11 Mar. 2022
  • Subsequent political huggermugger led to the exile of Athenian generals Xanthippus and Aristides, but the two were called back as the Persians mounted a second, retributive invasion almost a decade later.
    — Katherine A. Powers, Star Tribune, 28 May 2021

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'retributive.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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