How to Use penalize in a Sentence

penalize

verb
  • The hockey player was penalized for holding.
  • The company was penalized for not paying taxes.
  • This law would unfairly penalize immigrants.
  • The Rams were penalized twice on the play when Hunter got hit.
    — Julianne McShane, NBC News, 19 Sep. 2023
  • But most games penalize you for failing and force you to do the same thing again.
    — Washington Post, 29 Sep. 2021
  • Even if a player isn’t penalized, he could still be fined by the league.
    — Brian Wacker, Baltimore Sun, 9 Aug. 2024
  • Hadley was even penalized a point during the fight for two eye pokes.
    — Brian Mazique, Forbes, 23 Oct. 2024
  • The 49ers were penalized six times for 83 yards, Green Bay only once for five yards.
    — Jerry McDonald, The Mercury News, 21 Jan. 2024
  • When the music is not perfect, the show gets penalized.
    — Billboard Italy, Billboard, 4 Oct. 2023
  • The bill would not penalize women who take or obtain the pills.
    — David W. Chen, New York Times, 16 Feb. 2023
  • That led the board to penalize Posey with a 60-day suspension.
    — Jeremy Gorner, chicagotribune.com, 5 Jan. 2022
  • Failure to report could be penalized by up to 14 years in prison.
    — Kanis Leung, The Christian Science Monitor, 19 Mar. 2024
  • These men teach you not to be kind, not to trust people or let your guard down—and then you're penalized for not being nice.
    — TIME, 7 May 2024
  • Or penalize rather than reward kickers who just kick it through the end zone?
    — Los Angeles Times, 20 Sep. 2022
  • After a 3-yard gain by Presley Fant, Boaz was penalized for clipping, moving the ball back to the 18.
    — al, 9 Sep. 2023
  • Mapu was penalized for the hit and Waddle did not return before the game was over . . .
    — Christopher Price, BostonGlobe.com, 18 Sep. 2023
  • The Eagles have only been penalized three times for 25 yards.
    — Owen Hayes, NBC News, 10 Feb. 2025
  • The Rams were penalized for having 12 men on the field near the conclusion of the Steelers’ game-winning scoring drive.
    — Gary Klein, Los Angeles Times, 22 Oct. 2023
  • And my deepest hope is that my actions don’t penalize my team.
    — Randi Richardson, NBC News, 28 Nov. 2022
  • Shesterkin was penalized two minutes for leaving the goalie's crease.
    — Ryan Canfield, Fox News, 22 Jan. 2025
  • Young said customers who were unable to make a payment due to the outage will not be penalized.
    — Yasmeen Saadi, The Indianapolis Star, 19 July 2024
  • The school had been severely penalized twice in a decade by the NCAA for rules violations.
    — Brian O'Keefe, Fortune, 11 Jan. 2024
  • Dustin Johnson, with a one-shot lead playing the final hole at Whistling Straits, is penalized two strokes for grounding his club in a bunker on the last hole.
    — Houston Mitchell, Los Angeles Times, 15 Aug. 2023
  • The people on this team have done some of the best work of their entire careers, and my deepest hope is that my actions don’t penalize my team.
    — Starr Bowenbank, Billboard, 28 Nov. 2022
  • There are plenty of ways that people get penalized for not paying their bills.
    — Cheyenne Haslett, ABC News, 11 June 2024
  • Biden said Manchin has pushed back on measures that would penalize coal production in his home state.
    — Time, 22 Oct. 2021
  • So why would anyone penalize him for what has transpired since?
    — Ira Winderman, Sun Sentinel, 25 Aug. 2022
  • So why penalize teams like the Guardians, who have put a winning team on the field for eight of the last nine years on a payroll that consistently ranks in the bottom five?
    — Paul Hoynes, cleveland, 4 Dec. 2021
  • Denny Hamlin has been penalized and dropped to the rear for driving through too many pit boxes under this caution.
    — Shane Connuck, Charlotte Observer, 23 Feb. 2025
  • Mixon received the fine for his comments after the game and after the Texans' defense was penalized twice for hits on Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
    — Chantz Martin, Fox News, 19 Feb. 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'penalize.' 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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