condign

comparative more condign · superlative most condign

1. archaicFitting, appropriate, deserved, especially denoting punishment.

   Consider, then, who is your best friend: he that would have brought him to condign punishment, or he that has saved him?

   1712, Humphry Polesworth [pseudonym; John Arbuthnot], “The conference between don Diego and John Bull.”, in John Bull Still in His Senses: Being the Third Part of Law is a Bottomless-Pit. […], London: […] John Morphew, […], →OCLC, page 117

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   Vnlesse it were a bloody Murtherer, Or foule felonious Theefe, that fleec'd poore passengers, I neuer gaue them condigne punishment.

   1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i], page 131, column 1

   And we [...] command all our officers [...], and loyal subjects, [...] transmit to one of our [...] secretaries [...] full information of all persons [...] abetting the persons now in open arms and rebellion [...] in North America [...] to bring to condign punishment the authors [...] of such traitorous designs.

   1775 August 23, King George III, A Proclamation for Suppressing Rebellion and Sedition

   When our Mahmouds or Selims of Baker Street or Belgrave Square visit their Fatimas with condign punishment, their mothers sew up Fatima’s sack for her, and her sisters and sisters-in-law see her well under water.

   1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 54, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume II, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC

   Pooh-bah. […] And so, / Although / I wish to go, / And greatly pine / To brightly shine, / And take the line / Of a hero fine, / With grief condign / I must decline—

   1885, W[illiam] S[chwenck] Gilbert; Arthur Sullivan, composer, […] The Mikado; or, The Town of Titipu, London: Chappel & Co., […], →OCLC, section I, page 18

   For a Christian, no Beyond is acceptable or imaginable without the participation of God in our eternal destiny, and this in turn implies a condign punishment for every sin, great and small.

   1962, Charles Kinbote [pseudonym; Vladimir Nabokov], “Commentary”, in Pale Fire, New York, N.Y.: Berkley Books, published November 1985, →ISBN, page 149, line 549

   Synonyms: just, merited