How to Use retributive in a Sentence

retributive

adjective
  • No doubt there will be clear or hidden retributive acts against Bates for endorsing Dixon.
    — Reader Commentary, Baltimore Sun, 20 Apr. 2024
  • 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
  • Ultimately, the goal is to break free from the same cycle of retributive politics that has dogged Bangladesh for decades.
    — Charlie Campbell, TIME, 3 Oct. 2024
  • That could backfire if GOP voters spy a case of unequal and retributive justice.
    — The Editorial Board, WSJ, 10 Aug. 2022
  • Such crimes reasonably elicit a demand for retributive justice.
    — Charles Fain Lehman, National Review, 18 Apr. 2021
  • 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
  • End the racial and economic violence, and the demand for retributive physical violence falls as well.
    — The Tylt, AL.com, 9 June 2017
  • 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
  • The current retributive model focuses only on punishment for past crimes.
    — Kenneth E. Hartman, Harper's magazine, 16 Sep. 2019
  • 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
  • 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
  • Instead, anger against the state is being converted into retributive politics between social groups.
    — Ajay Gudavarthy, Quartz India, 2 Sep. 2019
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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
  • And there’s no question that Israel was pursuing both a political agenda as well as retributive-justice agenda.
    — Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 10 June 2026
  • But in addition to the retributive intent of putting someone in prison, Graves also cites rehabilitative goals.
    — Courtland Milloy, Washington Post, 9 May 2023
  • India carries out retributive strikes on terror camps across the LoC in Pakistan’s Balakot region.
    — Manavi Kapur, Quartz India, 5 Aug. 2019
  • 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
  • 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
  • To be sure, some retributive violence has clearly taken place, and thousands of Syrians fearful of militant control have fled to Lebanon.
    — Sam Heller, Foreign Affairs, 16 Dec. 2024
  • 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 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
  • A week later, Hamas attacked military and civilian sites in Israel, and Israel began its retributive campaign against Gaza.
    — E. Tammy Kim, The New Yorker, 27 June 2024
  • The interviewees were willing to talk openly and honestly about Trump covered by anonymity, a necessity to protect them from this fiercely thin-skinned and retributive president.
    — Voice Of The People, New York Daily News, 25 June 2026
  • Even after his father was killed, Madan couldn’t summon any retributive energy, and while Megh’s neighbors joined soldiers to massacre twelve of his killers, Madan did little besides sketch out his next hit.
    — Sean Williams, Harper's Magazine, 11 Sep. 2023
  • 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
  • For millennia, punishment was considered morally defensible purely on retributive grounds.
    — Paul Rosenzweig, The Atlantic, 3 Jan. 2026
  • Rather, the Chinese Communist Party is also given credit for its ability to satisfy the public’s strong desire for retributive justice.
    — Dan Chen, The Conversation, 24 June 2024
  • The Front Page Highlights The president’s unilateral and retributive style of governing is starting to hit a wall in both chambers of Congress.
    — Katie Rogers Adriana Loureiro Fernandez Nina Agrawal Ryan Mac, New York Times, 5 June 2026

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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