How to use punishment in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun

Punishment means the act (action) or process of punishing, imposing and/or applying a sanction, typically by an authority or a person in authority (for example: a parent or teacher), especially when disappointed or dissatisfied with the behavior or actions of a child, student, or someone else being looked after. Example: “The naughty children were given a punishment by their teachers.”

Examples of punishment by meaning

nounThe act (action) or process of punishing, imposing and/or applying a sanction, typically by an authority or a person in...

The naughty children were given a punishment by their teachers.

nounA penalty to punish wrongdoing, especially for crime.

a light punishment
a harsh punishment
The only punishment is to take away the prisoner’s right to be a free member of society.2012 May 24, John D. Sutter, “Welcome to the world’s nicest prison”, in CNN

nounAny harsh treatment or experience; rough handling.

a vehicle that can take a lot of punishment

More sentences with punishment

Hanging is the punishment for one convicted of war crimes, there.From the entry hanging
He faced punishment for creating the fenced enclosure in a public park.From the entry enclosure
He must be a sucker for punishment to try to climb that mountain barefoot.From the entry sucker
They gave him a ducking in the river as a punishment.From the entry ducking
The cruel punishment was countenanced by the government, although it was not officially legal.From the entry countenance
I should have quit this job long ago, but I guess I'm just a glutton for punishment.From the entry glutton for punishment
To individuals who despise killings in any form, death penalty is undue punishment.From the entry undue
The child was made to sit in the corner as punishment for saying a dirty word.From the entry dirty word
Mirror punishments are often justified by the Biblical phrase 'an eye for an eye'.From the entry mirror punishment
The hull took a lot of punishment before it broke.From the entry take
The punishment bears no relation to the crime.From the entry bear
The child was misbehaving so he was belted as punishment.From the entry belt
My outburst met with the inevitable punishment.From the entry inevitable
My old lady was fond of corporal punishment.From the entry old lady
The punishment seemed disproportionate to the crime.From the entry disproportionate
Many people are in favor of capital punishment.From the entry in favor of
Career criminals laugh at minor punishments like those.From the entry laugh at
After all, who gets to decide what constitutes a crime and what constitutes the punishment?2023, Caroline Baker, Don Baker, “Cancel This! Influencers React to Cancel Culture and Deplatforming”, in An Influencer’s World: A…. From the entry uncancel
As a punishment, Zhemao and her affiliated accounts were suspended permanently.2022 July 13, Rachel Cheung, “A Bored Chinese Housewife Spent Years Falsifying Russian History on Wikipedia”, in Vice, archived from the…. From the entry separate the wheat from the chaff
“Physical punishment is something I’m very loathed to resort to,” Steve responded.2018, Morgan Bruce, Crowns: Alexei, Accidental Angel—Book 6, →ISBN, page 274. From the entry loathed
If it is aversive to the animal and discourages behavior, it is a punishment.2015, Ilona Rodan, Sarah Heath, editors, Feline Behavioral Health and Welfare, Elsevier Health Sciences, →ISBN, page 47. From the entry aversive
No airpuff punishment or active removal of residual water from the lickport was used.2015, Samuel Andrew Hires et al., “Low-noise encoding of active touch by layer 4 in the somatosensory cortex”, in eLife, volume 4, →DOI. From the entry airpuff
The English gallants who came to the colony for adventure or to escape punishment were very tender-handed.2014, Alice Morse Earle, Curious Punishments of Bygone Days, →ISBN. From the entry tender-handed
In a Kennedy Plea, the person does not accept guilt, but accepts the punishment for the crime.2014, WSAZ News Staff, "Jerel Garner Enters "Kennedy Plea" in Donte Newsome's Shooting Death", on WSAZ.com, 9 Sept. 2014. From the entry Kennedy plea
Often, as in the movie American History X, it is used as punishment for insubordinate blacks.2013 November 12, Shehu Sani, Hatred for Black People, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN, page 348. From the entry bite the curb
Constitution had abolished slavery but allowed one major exception: slavery remained appropriate as punishment for a crime.2012, Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow, →ISBN, page 31. From the entry exception
As a punishment, they put him to sit on top of a tall awarra palm.2011, Odeen Ishmael, “The War of the Birds”, in Guyana Legends: Folktales of the Indigenous Amerindians, [Bloomington, Ind.]: Xlibris…. From the entry awara
Arnold said whoever was responsible for her sister's death eventually will face punishment.2010 March 30, “Murder charge filed in Roodhouse woman's death”, in The Telegraph, Alton, Illinois, retrieved 02 May 2019. From the entry bring one's own hide to market
Corporal punishment was administered by use of a thick leather strap called a ‘pandy bat’.2010 Martin Tierney, Reflections of a Dublin priest (Dublin : Columba Press) →ISBN p. 19. From the entry pandy bat
He had been in disciplinary confinement (“the box”)—punishment reserved for serious prison offenses—for 14 months.2009, Megan McLemore, Barred from Treatment. From the entry box
The conflict in the countryside resulted in a far more draconian punishment.2009, Stuart Macintyre, A Concise History of Australia, page 125. From the entry draconian
Garvey makes it clear that no one deserves punishment merely for possessing base or nonadmirable desires.2009, Larry Alexander, Kimberly Kessler Ferzan, Stephen J. Morse, Crime and Culpability: A Theory of Criminal Law, page 76. From the entry nonadmirable
“You shall be held in the dungeon until I decide the proper punishment.2009, Sean Munger, “The Fire-Drake”, in Beowulf is Boring, Portland, Ore.: Lulu Press, →ISBN, part III (The Dragon), page 150. From the entry dungeon-master
Jerry Falwell's right-wing fundamentalist publication "Moral Majority Inc." editorialized that AIDS was God's "deserved punishments" against homosexuals.2007 May 26, Leslie Feinberg, “Care & prevention, not repression”, in Workers World. From the entry editorialize
The slaves were subject to punishment of maiming and unlimbing for insignificant faults.2007, Rev. Dr. Robinson A. Milwood, European Christianity and the Atlantic Slave Trade. From the entry unlimb

Meaning of punishment

noun The act (action) or process of punishing, imposing and/or applying a sanction, typically by an authority or a person in authority (for example: a parent or teacher), especially when disappointed or dissatisfied with the behavior or actions of a child, student, or someone else being looked after.
noun A penalty to punish wrongdoing, especially for crime.
noun A suffering by pain or loss imposed as retribution.

Full definition of punishment

Questions about punishment in a sentence

How do you use punishment in a sentence?: Punishment is used as a noun. For example: “The naughty children were given a punishment by their teachers.”
What is a short sentence with punishment?: “a harsh punishment”
What does punishment mean?: Punishment means the act (action) or process of punishing, imposing and/or applying a sanction, typically by an authority or a person in authority (for example: a parent or teacher), especially when disappointed or dissatisfied with the behavior or actions of a child, student, or someone else being looked after.

Adapted from Wiktionary: punishment (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use punishment in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/punishment. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.