mulct

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[edit] English

From Latin mulcta, from Proto-Italic.

mulct (plural mulcts)

(law) A fine or penalty, especially a pecuniary one.
- 1819, Lord Byron, Don Juan, I:
  
  juries cast up what a wife is worth, / By laying whate'er sum in mulct they please on / The lover, who must pay a handsome price, / Because it is a marketable vice.

pecuniary penalty

mulct (third-person singular simple present mulcts, present participle mulcting, simple past and past participle mulcted)

To impose such a fine.
- 1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter XVI:
  
  I say that I have seen the current issue of the Thursday Review, and I can quite understand him wanting to mulct the journal in substantial damages [...]
To swindle (someone) out of money.

impose a fine