Originally Posted By: The Pook
Debatable whether sanction is precisely in this category. Near enough I suppose, but the positive usage means official approval for something and the negative usage means the penalty or trade consequences of the official disapproval of something, rather than the disapproval itself.


AHD does list verb definitions in both senses. They do have the 'offical approval' vs. 'issue penalties for' difference that you object to but, as tsuwm pointed out, it's often difficult to get universal agreement on just what qualifies as opposite in definititons of words. It's not like my objections to the inclusion of 'cleave' in the list of janus words.