verb, slang ·Common ·High school level
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"If a prince violates the law, then he must be punished like an ordinary person."
"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."
"A few moments later, we were all sitting around the veranda of the hunters' dining hall, punishing the gin, as usual."
"We thought it wrong that you should punish him."
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).
Common synonyms include: penalize, chasten, abuse, admonish, agonize, amerce.
We thought it wrong that you should punish him.
Pronounced /ˈpʌnɪʃ/.
From Middle English punischen, from Anglo-Norman, Old French puniss-, stem of some of the conjugated forms of punir, from Latin puniō (“I inflict punishment upon”), from poena (“punishment, penalty”); see pain. Displaced Old English wītnian and (mostly, in this sense) wrecan.