To inflict pain upon by stripes, blows, or otherwise, for the purpose of punishing and recalling to duty; punish for the purpose of amending; correct or reclaim by punishment.
To discipline; instruct; correct the errors or faults of.
To reduce to submission; tame.
To restrain or refine by discipline; free from faults or excesses.
Synonyms Punish, Chasten, Chastise. To punish is primarily and chiefly to inflict pain upon, as a retribution for misdeeds, the notion of improving the offender being absent or quite subordinate. Chasten, on the other hand, implies that the reformation of the offender is the aim of the punishment inflicted. The word is not now often used of human acts; it is a biblical word for the providential discipline of man: as, “Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth” (Heb. xii. 6); and such expressions as “the chastening influence of sorrow” are in use. Chastise is a dignified word for corporal punishment, combining in nearly equal degrees the notions of desert and correction.