punish

B1 Topic:Ethics & Social Judgment

US /ˈpʌnɪʃ/ See IPA manual

Freq #3768

Meanings

1

verb
To make someone suffer for something wrong they have done.

The teacher punished the boy for cheating on the test.
2

verb
To treat someone harshly or unfairly.

The new rules seem to punish families who are already struggling.

Thesaurus

Synonyms

1 verb · to make someone suffer for... penalize castigate

2 verb · to treat someone harshly or... mistreat

More amerce chasten chastise correct gruelmalavoguepenance

Opposites

forgive reward

Word family

Forms punishedpunishespunishestpunishingunpunished

Derived forms mispunishoutpunishoverpunishprepunishpunishabilitypunishablepunisheepunisherpunishingpunishmentrepunishtelish

Related forms pain

Etymology

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.

*kʷey- Proto-Indo-European punischen Middle English puniō Latin

View etymology graph ->

External links

# punish

**Type:** Word
**Level:** B1
**Part of speech:** verb
**IPA (US):** /ˈpʌnɪʃ/
**Frequency rank:** 3768

## Meanings
1. To make someone suffer for something wrong they have done.
2. To treat someone harshly or unfairly.

## Examples
- The teacher punished the boy for cheating on the test.
- The new rules seem to punish families who are already struggling.

## Synonyms
- amerce
- castigate
- chasten
- chastise
- correct
- gruel
- malavogue
- penalize
- penance

## Antonyms
- forgive
- reward

## Derived Forms
- mispunish
- outpunish
- overpunish
- prepunish
- punishability
- punishable
- punishee
- punisher
- punishing
- punishment
- repunish
- telish

## Related Forms
- pain

## Roots and Affixes
- Root: *kʷey-
- Root: punischen
- Root: puniō

## Etymology
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.

## AI Etymology
Punish comes 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. In present-day English it covers to make someone suffer for something wrong they have done and to treat someone harshly or unfairly. The wider family includes derived forms such as mispunish, outpunish, overpunish, prepunish, punishability and related forms such as pain.

## Topics
- Ethics & Social Judgment

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punish

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