If the U.S. moves to sanction Putin and his pals next week, Moscow will definitely strike back.
Wednesday afternoon, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will mark up legislation to give aid to Ukraine and sanction Russia.
Right on cue, as if to sanction a visit, ten choristers from the Royal Holloway Choir start to sing.
You should ratchet up the sanction and make it clear to Iran that they won't get away with it.
Pressure on the West to sanction or abandon Israel might become unprecedented in severity.
But your father has given his sanction to your brother's dislikes, your uncles', and every body's!
I am sure they will, if you please to give them your sanction.
But how does this fact prove that the Bible does not sanction slavery?
My daughter must be consulted—have you received her sanction?
The consolidation still required the sanction of the legislature.
early 15c., "confirmation or enactment of a law," from Latin sanctionem (nominative sanctio) "act of decreeing or ordaining," also "decree, ordinance," noun of action from past participle stem of sancire "to decree, confirm, ratify, make sacred" (see saint (n.)). Originally especially of ecclesiastical decrees.
1778, "confirm by sanction, make valid or binding;" 1797 as "to permit authoritatively;" from sanction (n.). Seemingly contradictory meaning "impose a penalty on" is from 1956 but is rooted in an old legalistic sense of the noun. Related: Sanctioned; sanctioning.