unpunished

adjective un·pun·ished \ ˌən-ˈpə-nisht \

Definition of unpunished

:not punished

an unpunished criminal/crime

an offense that should not be allowed to go unpunished

See unpunished defined for English-language learners

Recent Examples of unpunished from the Web

But there are no records showing that the lawyer who investigated the complaint for the district ever bothered to talk to Soto, and Whitehurst went unpunished.

— bethany barnes, OregonLive.com, "Benefit of the Doubt," 17 Aug. 2017
As horrific as that was, Mumtaz and her family at least saw some justice done for an act that normally would have gone unpunished.

— rod nordland and jawad sukhanyar, New York Times, "Years After Acid Attack, an Afghan Story of Survival Takes a Dark Turn," 13 Aug. 2017
When her phone was infected, Salas and Pena had just presented a report to the Mexico City council on 10 emblematic crimes in the capital that had gone unpunished.

— frank bajak, The Seattle Times, "High-profile lawyers targeted in Mexico spyware scandal," 2 Aug. 2017
This could be Trump’s most far-reaching impact: He’s shown how corrupt a president can go unpunished because of hyper-partisanship.

— jeet heer, New Republic, "Welcome to the New Trumpism," 22 July 2017
Instead, senior Trump administration officials sought to emphasize their deep concerns about Iran's non-nuclear behavior and vowed that those transgressions won't go unpunished.

— josh lederman, chicagotribune.com, "U.S. sanctions more Iranians, but nuclear deal stands for now," 18 July 2017
Senior administration officials, instead, sought to emphasize their concerns about Iran's non-nuclear behavior and vowed that those transgressions won't go unpunished.

— Fox News, "Trump administration says Iran complying with nuclear deal but defying its spirit," 17 July 2017
The emails suggest Jones believed that drinking alcohol — a violation of Baylor’s code of conduct — shouldn’t go unpunished.

— matthew watkins and jim malewitz, star-telegram, "As Baylor regent, lobbyist called drinking female students ‘perverted little tarts’," 2 July 2017
This sequence of political volatility, followed by Trump's skirting of accountability, has meant that Russian interference in the 2016 election campaign has gone largely unpunished.

— isobel thompson, The Hive, "How Obama Was Blindsided by the “Crime of the Century”," 23 June 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'unpunished.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.