English

Adjective

condign ‎(comparative more condign, superlative most condign)

1. (rare) Fitting, appropriate, deserved, especially denoting punishment
   • 1591?, William Shakespeare, Henry VI Part ii, Act 3, Scene 1:

     Unless it were a bloody murderer, / Or foul felonious thief that fleeced poor passengers, / I never gave them condign punishment:

   • 1885, William Schwenk Gilbert, The Mikado, Act I:

     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 –

   • 1962, Vladimir Nabokov, Pale Fire:

     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.

   • 2004, George F. Will, "Voters' Obligations", in The Washington Post, October 21, 2004:

     [A]n undervote usually reflects either voter carelessness, for which the voter suffers the condign punishment of an unrecorded preference, or reflects the voter's choice not to express a preference[.]

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