merited

When she came to that part of the letter in which her family were mentioned, in tones of such mortifying, yet merited, reproach, her sense of shame was severe.

For though your accusations were ill-founded, formed on mistaken premises, my behaviour to you at the time had merited the severest reproof.

I have already successfully conducted several public prosecutions, and brought the offenders to merited punishment.

Seventeen months’ captivity to a sailor accustomed to the boundless ocean, is a worse punishment than human crime ever merited.