punish

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   To cause (a child, student, or someone else being looked after, or a suspect or criminal)…

   To cause (a child, student, or someone else being looked after, or a suspect or criminal) to suffer for crime or misconduct, to administer disciplinary action, typically by an authority or a person in authority (for example: a parent, teacher, or police officer).

   • If a prince violates the law, then he must be punished like an ordinary person.
   • The law needs to punish this behaviour as a deterrent to others.
2. 2

   To treat harshly and unfairly.

   • But each effort that Anna makes —and she has attempted many— meets with obstacles from a welfare bureaucracy that punishes single mothers for initiative and partial economic self-sufficiency.
   • Homer, moreover, gives the impression that the Sun punished Odysseus's men; but we are later told that the Sun cannot punish individual men […]
   • The rider who comes back on his horse in mid-air over a fence is punishing his horse severely.
3. 3

   To handle or beat severely

   To handle or beat severely; to maul.

4. ›+ 1 more definitionshow fewer

   1. 4

      To consume a large quantity of.

      • A few moments later, we were all sitting around the veranda of the hunters' dining hall, punishing the gin, as usual.

The neighborhood

• synonymamerce
• synonymcastigate
• synonymchasten
• synonymchastise
• synonymcome down on
• synonymcorrect
• synonymfix someone's wagon
• synonymhave someone's guts for garters
• synonymhave someone's head
• synonymhave someone's hide
• synonymgive it to someone
• synonymgive someone what for
• antonymforgive
• antonymlet off
• antonymreward
• neighborpain
• neighbortake the law into one's own hands
• neighbormake an example of
• neighbormispunish
• neighboroutpunish
• neighborprepunish
• neighborrepunish
• neighbortelish
• neighborvictimize
• neighborbastinado
• neighborbehead
• neighborcrucify