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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Retribution \Ret'ri*bu"tion\, noun [L. retributio: cf. F. r['e]tribution.]
1. The act of retributing; repayment.
In good offices and due retributions, we may not be pinching and niggardly. --Bp. Hall.
2. That which is given in repayment or compensation; return suitable to the merits or deserts of, as an action; commonly, condign punishment for evil or wrong.
All who have their reward on earth, . . . Naught seeking but the praise of men, here find Fit retribution, empty as their deeds. --Milton.
3. Specifically, reward and punishment, as distributed at the general judgment.
It is a strong argument for a state of retribution hereafter, that in this world virtuous persons are very often unfortunate, and vicious persons prosperous. --Addison.
Syn: Repayment; requital; recompense; payment; retaliation.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
retribution
noun
1: a justly deserved penalty [syn: {requital}]
2: the act of correcting for your wrongdoing
3: the act of taking revenge (harming someone in retaliation for something harmful that they have done) especially in the next life; "Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord"--Romans 12:19; "For vengeance I would do nothing. This nation is too great to look for mere revenge"--James Garfield; "he swore vengeance on the man who betrayed him"; "the swiftness of divine retribution" [syn: {vengeance}, {payback}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
78 Moby Thesaurus words for "retribution": affliction, amends, atonement, avengement, avenging, blood money, castigation, chastening, chastisement, comeuppance, compensation, condign punishment, consideration, correction, counterblow, damages, desert, deserts, disciplinary measures, discipline, ferule, guerdon, honorarium, indemnification, indemnity, infliction, judgment, judicial punishment, just deserts, justice, making good, meed, nemesis, pains, pains and punishments, pay, paying back, payment, penal retribution, penalty, penology, price, punishment, punition, quid pro quo, quittance, recompense, redress, refund, reimbursement, remuneration, reparation, repayment, reprisal, requital, requitement, restitution, retaliation, retributive justice, return, revanche, revenge, reward, salvage, satisfaction, scourge, smart money, solatium, squaring, trial, tribulation, vengeance, visitation, well-deserved punishment, wergild, what is due, what is merited, what-for
From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:
RETRIBUTION, noun A rain of fire-and-brimstone that falls alike upon the just and such of the unjust as have not procured shelter by evicting them. In the lines following, addressed to an Emperor in exile by Father Gassalasca Jape, the reverend poet appears to hint his sense of the improduence of turning about to face Retribution when it is talking exercise:
What, what! Dom Pedro, you desire to go Back to Brazil to end your days in quiet? Why, what assurance have you 'twould be so? 'Tis not so long since you were in a riot, And your dear subjects showed a will to fly at Your throat and shake you like a rat. You know That empires are ungrateful; are you certain Republics are less handy to get hurt in?
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