punish
Syllables: pun·ish/ˈpʌnɪʃ/
punish verb: 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).
Verb
punish (third-person singular simple present punishes, present participle punishing, simple past and past participle punished)
- 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.
- It was not from the want of proper laws that dangerous principles had been disseminated, and had assumed a threatening aspect, but because those laws had not been employed by the executive power to remedy the evil, and to punish the offenders.1818, William Cobbett, The Parliamentary History of England, from the Earliest Period to the Year 1803, page 255
- 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.1994, Valerie Polakow, Lives on the Edge: Single Mothers and Their Children in the Other America, University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, page 68
- Homer, moreover, gives the impression that the Sun punished Odysseus's men; but we are later told that the Sun cannot punish individual men […]2008, Seth Benardete, The Bow and the Lyre: A Platonic Reading of the Odyssey, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, →ISBN, page 5
- Synonyms:
- mistreat
- To handle or beat severely; to maul.
- 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.1970, Doc Greene, The Memory Collector, page 49
punish meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
punish in Hindi
- to cause to suffer for crime or misconduct
- सज़ा देना sazā denā, दंड देना daṇḍ denā
punish in Tamil
- to cause to suffer for crime or misconduct
- தண்டி taṇṭi
punish in Marathi
- शिक्षा करणे
punish in Urdu
- to cause to suffer for crime or misconduct
- سَزا دینا sazā denā
More languagesFewer languages
- punish in Bengali
- দণ্ড দেত্তয়া donḍo dettoẏa, সাজা দেত্তয়া śaja dettoẏa
- punish in Telugu
- దండించు daṇḍiñcu, శిక్షించు śikṣiñcu, శాసించు śāsiñcu
- punish in Malayalam
- അടിക്കുക aṭikkuka, തല്ലുക talluka
- punish in Kannada
- ದಂಡಿಸು, ಶಿಕ್ಷಿಸು, ತಕ್ಕಶಾಸ್ತಿ ಮಾಡು
- punish in Punjabi
- ਸਜ਼ਾ ਦੇਣਾ, ਸਜ਼ਾ ਦੇਣ ਲਈ
- punish in Gujarati
- સજા આપવી, સજા કરવી
- punish in Odia
- ଦଣ୍ଡ ଦେବା
- punish in Sanskrit
- चयते cayate
- punish in Assamese
- বজোৱা bozüa
- punish in Arabic
- عَاقَبَ ʕāqaba, قَاصَصَ qāṣaṣa, اِقْتَصَّ iqtaṣṣa, جَزَى jazā
- punish in Malay
- menghukum
- punish in Indonesian
- menghukum
- punish in Persian
- ادب کردن adab kardan, مجازات کردن mojâzât kardan, تنبیه کردن tanbih kardan
- punish in Thai
- ลงโทษ long-tôot, ทำโทษ tam-tôot
- punish in Vietnamese
- phạt, trừng phạt
- punish in Myanmar
- အပြစ်ပေး a.pracpe:, ဆုံးမ hcum:ma.
Examples of punish in a sentence
- The law needs to punish this behaviour as a deterrent to others.2007, Matthew Weait, Intimacy and Responsibility: The Criminalisation of HIV Transmission, Routledge, →ISBN, page 80:
- The aim of Bastoy is not to punish or seek revenge, Nilsen said.2012 May 24, John D. Sutter, “Welcome to the world’s nicest prison”, in CNN:
- His mother had punished him when he'd deserved it.2017, Joyce Carol Oates, Double Delight, Open Road Media, →ISBN:
- The rider who comes back on his horse in mid-air over a fence is punishing his horse severely.2009, Gordon Wright, Learning to Ride, Hunt, and Show, Skyhorse Publishing Inc., →ISBN, page 44:
Synonyms of punish
- castigate
- penalize
- pillory
- mistreat
- amerce
- chastise
- come down on
- correct
- fix someone's wagon
- have someone's guts for garters
13 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Antonyms
Forms of punish
| third-person singular present | punishes |
|---|---|
| present participle | punishing |
| past participle | punished |
| past | punished |
| alternative form (obsolete) | punishe |
Origin of punish
From Middle English punischen, from Anglo-Norman, Old French puniss-, stem of some of the conjugated forms of punir, from Latin puniō (“to inflict punishment upon”), from poena (“punishment, penalty”); see pain. Displaced Old English wītnian and (mostly, in this sense) wrecan.
Words formed from punish
Questions about punish
- What does punish mean?
- Punish means 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).
- What is punish in Hindi?
- Punish in Hindi is सज़ा देना (sazā denā), दंड देना (daṇḍ denā). See Punish meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use punish in a sentence?
- The law needs to punish this behaviour as a deterrent to others.
- What part of speech is punish?
- Punish is a verb.
- How do you pronounce punish?
- Punish is pronounced /ˈpʌnɪʃ/.
- What is the past tense of punish?
- The past tense of punish is punished.
Words near punish in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: punish (page history and authors); punish (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); దండించు (Telugu) (page history and authors); അടിക്കുക (Malayalam) (page history and authors); punish (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); punish (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); punish (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); punish (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); বজোৱা (Assamese) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-punish.ogg.
Cite this entry: “punish.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/punish. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.