punished
Syllables: pun·ished/ˈpʌnɪʃt/
punished is the simple past and past participle of punish.
Meaning of punish
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.
- 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
- 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
Adjective
punished (comparative more punished, superlative most punished)
- That has been the object of punishment.
Synonyms of punished
Antonyms
Forms of punished
| comparative | more punished |
|---|---|
| superlative | most punished |
Words formed from punished
Questions about punished
- What does punished mean?
- Punished means that has been the object of punishment.
- What is punished the simple past and past participle of?
- Punished is the simple past and past participle of punish.
- What part of speech is punished?
- Punished is an adjective.
- How do you pronounce punished?
- Punished is pronounced /ˈpʌnɪʃt/.
Words near punished in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: punished (page history and authors); punish (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.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “punished.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/punished. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
