Punish Meaning
/ˈpʌnɪʃ/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
verbTo 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).
verbTo treat harshly and unfairly.
Sentence Examples
We thought it wrong that you should punish him.
Punish the wicked and save the weak.
CEFR Practice Quiz
Parents should never ____ their children physically at home for minor mistakes.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The school decided to ____ the students who had vandalized the classroom by making them clean it.
Word Origin & History
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.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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:
"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:
"But officials here maintain that their methods do make a difference, and they follow it up with post-release programs. The aim of Bastoy is not to punish or seek revenge, Nilsen said. 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:
"His mother had punished him when he'd deserved it. She'd loved him, he was “all she had,” but she'd punished him, too."
— 2017, Joyce Carol Oates, Double Delight, Open Road Media, →ISBN:
"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:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
Parents should never ____ their children physically at home for minor mistakes.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The school decided to ____ the students who had vandalized the classroom by making them clean it.