# punish
## English
### Alternative forms

* punishe (obsolete)

### Etymology

From Middle English punischen, from Anglo-Norman, Old French puniss-, stem of some of the conjugated forms of punir, from Latin puniō (“I inflict punishment upon”), from poena (“punishment, penalty”); see pain. Displaced Old English wītnian and (mostly, in this sense) wrecan.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈpʌnɪʃ/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Hyphenation: pun‧ish
* Rhymes: -ʌnɪʃ

### Verb

punish (third-person singular simple present punishes, present participle punishing, simple past and past participle punished)
* (transitive) 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).
    Synonym: castigate
    If a prince violates the law, then he must be punished like an ordinary person.
** 1818, William Cobbett, The Parliamentary History of England, from the Earliest Period to the Year 1803, page 255: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.
** 2007, Matthew Weait, Intimacy and Responsibility: The Criminalisation of HIV Transmission, Routledge, →ISBN, page 80:The law needs to punish this behaviour as a deterrent to others.
** 2017, Joyce Carol Oates, Double Delight, Open Road Media, →ISBN: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.
* (transitive, figuratively) To treat harshly and unfairly.
    Synonym: mistreat
** 1994, Valerie Polakow, Lives on the Edge: Single Mothers and Their Children in the Other America, University of Chicago Press, →ISBN, page 68: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.
** 2008, Seth Benardete, The Bow and the Lyre: A Platonic Reading of the Odyssey, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, →ISBN, page 5:Homer, moreover, gives the impression that the Sun punished Odysseus's men; but we are later told that the Sun cannot punish individual men […]
** 2009, Gordon Wright, Learning to Ride, Hunt, and Show, Skyhorse Publishing Inc., →ISBN, page 44:The rider who comes back on his horse in mid-air over a fence is punishing his horse severely.
* (transitive, colloquial) To handle or beat severely; to maul.
* (transitive, colloquial) To consume a large quantity of.
** 1970, Doc Greene, The Memory Collector, page 49:A few moments later, we were all sitting around the veranda of the hunters' dining hall, punishing the gin, as usual.

#### Derived terms

* corporally punish
* mispunish
* outpunish
* overpunish
* prepunish
* punishability
* punishable
* punishee
* punisher (noun)
* punishing
* punishment (noun)
* repunish
* telish, telishment

#### Related terms

* pain

#### Translations

Albanian: ndëshkoj (sq)
Arabic: عَاقَبَ (ʕāqaba), قَاصَصَ (qāṣaṣa), اِقْتَصَّ (iqtaṣṣa), جَزَى (jazā)
Armenian: պատժել (hy) (patžel)
Asturian: castigar
Azerbaijani: cəzalandırmaq, cəzasını vermək
Basque: zigortu
Belarusian: кара́ць impf (karácʹ), пакара́ць pf (pakarácʹ)
Bengali: দণ্ড দেত্তয়া (donḍo dettoẏa), সাজা দেত্তয়া (śaja dettoẏa)
Bulgarian: нака́звам (bg) impf (nakázvam), нака́жа pf (nakáža)
Burmese: အပြစ်ပေး (my) (a.pracpe:), ဆုံးမ (my) (hcum:ma.)
Catalan: castigar (ca), punir (ca)
Cherokee: ᎣᏍᏛᏗᏍᏗ (osdvdisdi)
Chinese:
Mandarin: 懲罰 / 惩罚 (zh) (chéngfá), 處罰 / 处罚 (zh) (chǔfá), 制裁 (zh) (zhìcái)
Cornish: kessydhya
Czech: trestat (cs) impf, potrestat pf
Danish: straffe
Dutch: straffen (nl), afstraffen (nl), bestraffen (nl)
Egyptian: (ḫsf), (njk)
Esperanto: puni
Estonian: karistama
Finnish: rangaista (fi)
French: punir (fr), châtier (fr)
Friulian: cjastiâ
Galician: castigar (gl), punir (gl)
Georgian: დასჯა (dasǯa)
German: bestrafen (de), strafen (de)
Gothic: 𐍅𐌻𐌹𐌶𐌾𐌰𐌽 (wlizjan)
Greek: τιμωρώ (el) (timoró)
Ancient: τιμωρέω (timōréō), κολάζω (kolázō)
Hebrew: הֶעֱנִישׁ (he'enísh)
Higaonon: silot
Hindi: सज़ा देना (sazā denā)
Hungarian: büntet (hu), megbüntet (hu)
Icelandic: refsa (is)
Indonesian: menghukum (id)
Ingrian: rangaissa, rangata
Irish: cuir pionós ar, pionósaigh, aifir
Italian: punire (it), castigare (it)
Japanese: 罰する (ja) (ばっする, bassuru), 懲罰する (ja) (ちょうばつする, chōbatsu suru)
Kazakh: жазалау (jazalau)
Khmer: បញ្ចាល (bɑñcaal), ផ្ដន្ទា (km) (phdɑntiə), ទរ (km) (tɔɔ)
Korean: 벌주다 (ko) (beoljuda), 징벌하다 (ko) (jingbeolhada), 처벌하다 (ko) (cheobeolhada), 응징하다 (eungjinghada)
Kyrgyz: жазалоо (ky) (jazaloo)
Lao: ລົງໂທດ (long thōt)
Latin: multō (la), pūniō
Latvian: sodīt, nosodīt
Lithuanian: bausti, nubausti
Low German:
German Low German: strafen, bestrafen
Luxembourgish: strofen, bestrofen
Macedonian: казнува impf (kaznuva), казни pf (kazni)
Malay: menghukum
Maori: ngahi, ngawhi
Mizo: hrem
Mongolian:
Cyrillic: шийтгэх (mn) (šiitgex)
Ngazidja Comorian: uâdhiɓu, uhukumu
Norwegian:
Bokmål: straffe (no)
Nynorsk: straffa
Occitan: castigar (oc), punir (oc)
Old Czech: tresktati impf, potresktati pf
Old English: wrecan, wītnian
Oromo: adabuu
Persian: ادب کردن (fa) (adab kardan), مجازات کردن (mojâzât kardan), تنبیه کردن (fa) (tanbih kardan)
Piedmontese: punì
Polish: karać (pl) impf, ukarać (pl) pf
Portuguese: castigar (pt), punir (pt)
Quechua: maqakuy, wanay
Romanian: a pedepsi (ro)
Romansch: chastiar
Russian: нака́зывать (ru) impf (nakázyvatʹ), наказа́ть (ru) pf (nakazátʹ); кара́ть (ru) impf (karátʹ), покара́ть (ru) pf (pokarátʹ)
Sanskrit: चयते (cayate)
Sardinian: casticare, castigae, castigai, castigare
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: кажња́вати impf, ка̏знити pf
Roman: kažnjávati (sh) impf, kȁzniti (sh) pf
Sicilian: castigari (scn), castijari (scn), castiari (scn)
Slovak: trestať impf, potrestať pf
Slovene: kaznovati (sl) impf
Spanish: castigar (es), punir (es), empurar (es)
Swahili: kuadhibu
Swedish: straffa (sv)
Tajik: ҷазо додан (jazo dodan), сазо додан (sazo dodan)
Tamil: தண்டி (ta) (taṇṭi)
Tatar: җәзаларга (cäzalarga)
Thai: ลงโทษ (th) (long-tôot), ทำโทษ (tam-tôot)
Tibetan: ཉེས་པ་གཏོང (nyes pa gtong)
Turkish: cezalandırmak (tr), ceza vermek (tr)
Turkmen: jezalandyrmak
Ukrainian: кара́ти impf (karáty), покара́ти pf (pokaráty), нака́зувати impf (nakázuvaty), наказа́ти pf (nakazáty)
Urdu: سزا دینا (sazā denā)
Uyghur: جازالىماق (ug) (jazalimaq)
Uzbek: jazolamoq (uz), jazo bermoq
Venetan: castigar
Vietnamese: phạt (vi), trừng phạt (vi)
Yiddish: באַשטראָפֿן (bashtrofn) :
    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

#### Further reading

* “punish”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
* William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “punish”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

### Anagrams

* push in, push-in, pushin', unship