Link Centre Dictionary

punish

pu·nish

UK/ˈpʌnɪʃ/ US/ˈpʌnɪʃ/ common

verb

1.

impose a penalty on; inflict punishment on

  • “The students were penalized for showing up late for class”
  • “we had to punish the dog for soiling the floor again”
Synonyms

Origin

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.

Phrases

  • corporally punish
  • take the law into one's own hands

Related words

Word family

Narrower terms

Entails

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.