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on pain of

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on pain of something

(slightly formal)

at risk of experiencing something bad She says she was asked to approve the report on pain of losing her job.

See also: of, on, pain

on pain of

Also, under pain of. Subject to the penalty of a specific punishment. For example, The air traffic controllers knew that going on strike was on pain of losing their jobs . At one time this idiom often invoked death as the penalty, a usage that is largely hyperbolic today, as in We'd better be back on time, under pain of death. [Late 1300s]

See also: of, on, pain