Telish
//ˈtɛlɪʃ// verb
verb ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Verb
- 1 Punish (an innocent person) for the sake of deterrence; subject (a person) to telishment.
"How is one to limit the risks involved in allowing such systematic deception? How is one to avoid giving anything short of complete discretion to the authorities to telish anyone they like?"
Example
More examples"How is one to limit the risks involved in allowing such systematic deception? How is one to avoid giving anything short of complete discretion to the authorities to telish anyone they like?"
Etymology
Coined by John Rawls in his 1955 paper “Two Concepts of Rules”. Probably a portmanteau of the Ancient Greek τέλος (télos, “result”, “end”, loosely “the greater good”) and the English (pun)ish, after telishment.
More for "telish"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.