Library / English Dictionary

PUNISH

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Impose a penalty on; inflict punishment on

Example:

we had to punish the dog for soiling the floor again

Synonyms:

penalise; penalize; punish

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

"Punish" entails doing...:

approximate; estimate; gauge; guess; judge (judge tentatively or form an estimate of (quantities or time))

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "punish"):

avenge; retaliate; revenge (take revenge for a perceived wrong)

tar-and-feather (smear the body of (someone) with tar and feathers; done in some societies as punishment)

execute; put to death (kill as a means of socially sanctioned punishment)

pillory (punish by putting in a pillory)

castigate (inflict severe punishment on)

amerce (punish with an arbitrary penalty)

victimise; victimize (punish unjustly)

scourge (punish severely; excoriate)

correct; discipline; sort out (punish in order to gain control or enforce obedience)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

punishment (the act of punishing)

punitive; punitory (inflicting punishment)

Credits

 Context examples: 

May God judge me by my deserts, and punish me with more bitter suffering than even this hour, if by any act or will of mine anything ever come between us!

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

The second is to clear up the mystery and to punish the guilty parties.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“Who’d have thought he was such a punishing hitter?”

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“He was a devil and a monster, and there can be no judge in the world who would punish my husband for having killed him.”

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

My papa is a syndic—he is M. Frankenstein—he will punish you.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) Does the patient say that he/she is a bad person or deserves to be punished?

(NPI - Say That He/She is a Bad Person, NCI Thesaurus)

Laurie has confessed, asked pardon, and been punished quite enough.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

I am not obliged to punish myself for her sins.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

But, sooner than have him punished for his offences (as he would be if he prowled about in this country), I give him more money than I can afford, at intervals when he reappears, to go away.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Eliza had confessed to me, though most reluctantly, the name of her lover; and when he returned to town, which was within a fortnight after myself, we met by appointment, he to defend, I to punish his conduct.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)