Word.ws English Dictionary

punishing

/ˈpʌnɪʃɪŋ/

punishing adjective: that punishes physically and/or mentally; arduous, gruelling, demanding. Also the present participle and gerund of punish.

Adjective

punishing (comparative more punishing, superlative most punishing)

  1. That punishes physically and/or mentally; arduous, gruelling, demanding.
    • Upon Amelia's return from the West Coast in October, George presented her with a punishing schedule of lectures and appointments to promote the new book and solidify her position as America's foremost woman aviator.2010, Kathleen C. Winters, Amelia Earhart: The Turbulent Life of an American Icon, St. Martin's Press, →ISBN, page 90
    • Regardless of the punishing heat and physicality, restaurant cooking is a calling many Chinese chefs cannot deny.2013, Grace Young, Alan Richardson, The Breath of a Wok, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN, page 100
  2. (figuratively) Debilitating, harsh.
    • Others argued that the worst of all outcomes after 40 years of a punishing embargo would be for the United States to adopt policies that might extend the life of a dictatorial regime.1999, Edward Gonzalez, Richard Nuccio, Rand Corporation. National Security Research Division, The Rand Forum on Cuba, Rand Corp
    • Public debt of this magnitude can provoke punishing tax rates and crowd out private investment.2010, Gary Clyde Hufbauer, Globalization at Risk, Yale University Press, →ISBN

Noun

punishing (plural punishings)

  1. Punishment.
    • We may not be convinced that God is as involved in historical punishings as the prophet claims, and we may have a strong negative reaction to the claims made for how God acts[…]2011, Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore, The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Practical Theology, page 303

Also used as

punishing is also the present participle and gerund of punish.

punishing meaning in Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada

punishing in Telugu

శిక్షించడం

punishing in Malayalam

ശിക്ഷിക്കുന്നു

punishing in Kannada

ಶಿಕ್ಷೆ ವಿಧಿಸುವುದು

Examples of punishing in a sentence

  • They took off at a punishing speed, making London in less than half a day.2016, Tamara Gill, Only an Earl Will Do, Entangled: Select Historical
  • The apparent punishing effect of naloxone may be mediated through the withdrawal reaction that it produces[.]2016, David J. Sanger, Derek E. Blackman, Aspects of Psychopharmacology, Routledge, →ISBN:

Forms of punishing

Adjective
comparativemore punishing
superlativemost punishing
Noun
pluralpunishings

Words formed from punishing

Questions about punishing

What does punishing mean?
Punishing means that punishes physically and/or mentally; arduous, gruelling, demanding.
What is punishing in Telugu?
Punishing in Telugu is శిక్షించడం. See Punishing meaning in Telugu.
How do you use punishing in a sentence?
They took off at a punishing speed, making London in less than half a day.
What part of speech is punishing?
Punishing can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce punishing?
Punishing is pronounced /ˈpʌnɪʃɪŋ/.

Words near punishing in the dictionary

  1. punisher
  2. punishers
  3. punishes
  4. punishest
  5. punisheth
  6. punishing
  7. punishingly
  8. punishingness
  9. punishings
  10. punishment
  11. punishment pass

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: punishing (page history and authors); punishing (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); punishing (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); punishing (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-punishing.wav.

Cite this entry: “punishing.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/punishing. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.