sanction

Pluralsanctions

Formssanctions, sanctioning, sanctioned

1. 1
   nounusually plural

   A penalty or coercive measure meant to ensure compliance, especially one imposed by several nations or an international body.

   The United Nations imposed a sanction on arms sales to the region.

   Economic sanctions crippled the regime's ability to finance its military.

   Similarpenalty, embargo, restriction, punishment, ban

   Oppositereward, incentive

   Note

   Here the word lives mostly in the plural: a new round of sanctions, economic sanctions, sanctions against a regime. The usual prepositions are against or on, and the target is typically a government. Phrased this way, the punitive reading is unmistakable. A bare singular sanction, by contrast, leans toward approval.

2. 2
   verbtransitive

   To give official authorization or approval to something; to formally permit it.

   The committee sanctioned the merger after months of review.

   Parliament refused to sanction further spending on the project.

   Similarauthorize, approve, permit, allow, endorse

   Oppositeforbid, prohibit, veto, ban

   Note

   Approval need not be spoken aloud. A school's inaction can "further sanction" misbehavior. In Bertrand Russell's History of Western Philosophy (1946), Calvin and other Protestant divines "sanctioned interest." That shading toward countenancing, tolerating what one could forbid, lets the verb approve a whole practice. Validating a single document or measure is the narrower job of the ratifying verb.

3. 3
   verbtransitive

   To impose penalties or coercive measures on a state or similar body, typically to force compliance.

   The coalition sanctioned the country for violating the arms agreement.

   Member states voted to sanction the aggressor within days of the invasion.

   Similarpenalize, punish, embargo

   Oppositereward

   Note

   Punishment turned into a verb. Its object is a state or similar body, and its past participle now works as a ready label: "the export of weapons to sanctioned countries." A sanctioned activity can just as easily mean an approved one. To tell them apart, look at the noun it modifies: a country or regime points to penalty, while a practice or event points to the authorizing verb.

4. 4
   noununcountable

   Approval given by an authority, generally the kind that makes an action or arrangement valid.

   The treaty took effect only after receiving royal sanction.

   Their marriage lacked the church's sanction and was never formally recognized.

   Similarapproval, authorization, permission, consent, assent

   Oppositedisapproval, prohibition, veto

   Note

   The approving side of a word that also punishes. It comes through Middle French sanction from Latin sānctiō. As a mass noun it pairs naturally with with and without: Letitia Elizabeth Landon's Ethel Churchill (1837) has a wife who acts "without his sanction." Keep it apart from the penalty meaning, which says nearly the opposite. The construction and the context usually tell the two apart.

5. 5
   verbtransitive

   To ratify an agreement or measure, giving it formal validity.

   The legislature sanctioned the amendment after a lengthy debate.

   Delegates gathered to sanction the founding charter of the new union.

   Similarratify, approve, endorse, confirm, validate

   Oppositereject, veto

6. 6
   nouncountable

   A law, treaty, or contract (or a clause within one) that specifies the penalty or approval attached to compliance or violation.

   The statute's final sanction defined the fines for noncompliance.

   Negotiators inserted a sanction into the contract to deter breaches.

   Similarprovision, clause, penalty

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