v., -ished, -ish·ing, -ish·es. v.tr.
- To subject to a penalty for an offense, sin, or fault.
- To inflict a penalty for (an offense).
- To handle roughly; hurt: My boots were punished by our long trek through the desert.
To exact or mete out punishment.
[Middle English punissen, punishen, from Old French punir, puniss-, from Latin poenīre, pūnīre, from poena, punishment, from Greek poinē.]
punishability pun'ish·a·bil'i·ty n.punishable pun'ish·a·ble adj.
punisher pun'ish·er n.
SYNONYMS punish, correct, chastise, discipline, castigate, penalize. These verbs mean to subject a person to something negative for an offense, sin, or fault. Punish is the least specific: The principal punished the students who were caught cheating. To correct is to punish so that the offender will mend his or her ways: Regulations formerly permitted prison wardens to correct unruly inmates. Chastise implies either corporal punishment or a verbal rebuke, as a means of effecting improvement in behavior: I chastised the bully by giving him a thrashing. The sarcastic child was roundly chastised for insolence. Discipline stresses punishment inflicted by an authority in order to control or to eliminate unacceptable conduct: The worker was disciplined for insubordination. Castigate means to censure or criticize severely, often in public: The judge castigated the attorney for badgering the witness. Penalize usually implies the forfeiture of money or of a privilege or gain because rules or regulations have been broken: Those who file their income-tax returns late will be penalized.
