Adjacent Words

Punishment definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

PUN'ISHMENT, n. Any pain or suffering inflicted on a person for a crime or offense, by the authority to which the offender is subject, either by the constitution of God or of civil society. The punishment of the faults and offenses of children by the parent, is by virtue of the right of government with which the parent is invested by God himself. This species of punishment is chastisement or correction. The punishment of crimes against the laws is inflicted by the supreme power of the state in virtue of the right of government, vested in the prince or legislature. The right of punishment belongs only to persons clothed with authority. Pain, loss or evil willfully inflicted on another for his crimes or offenses by a private unauthorized person, is revenge rather than punishment.
Some punishments consist in exile or transportation, others in loss of liberty by imprisonment; some extend to confiscation by forfeiture of lands and goods, others induce a disability of holding offices, of being heirs and the like.
Divine punishments are doubtless designed to secure obedience to divine laws, and uphold the moral order of created intelligent beings.
The rewards and punishments of another life, which the almighty has established as the enforcements of his law, are of weight enough to determine the choice against whatever pleasure or pain this life can show.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: the act of punishing [syn: punishment, penalty, penalization, penalisation]

Merriam Webster's

noun Date: 15th century 1. the act of punishing 2. a. suffering, pain, or loss that serves as retribution b. a penalty inflicted on an offender through judicial procedure 3. severe, rough, or disastrous treatment

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 the act or an instance of punishing; the condition of being punished. 2 the loss or suffering inflicted in this. 3 colloq. severe treatment or suffering. Etymology: ME f. AF & OF punissement f. punir

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Punishment Pun"ish*ment, n. Severe, rough, or disastrous treatment. [Colloq. or Slang]

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Punishment Pun"ish*ment, n. 1. The act of punishing. 2. Any pain, suffering, or loss inflicted on a person because of a crime or offense. I never gave them condign punishment. --Shak. The rewards and punishments of another life. --Locke. 3. (Law) A penalty inflicted by a court of justice on a convicted offender as a just retribution, and incidentally for the purposes of reformation and prevention.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(punishments) 1. Punishment is the act of punishing someone or of being punished. ...a group which campaigns against the physical punishment of children... I have no doubt that the man is guilty and that he deserves punishment. 2. A punishment is a particular way of punishing someone. The government is proposing tougher punishments for officials convicted of corruption... N-VAR 3. You can use punishment to refer to severe physical treatment of any kind. Don't expect these types of boot to take the punishment that gardening will give them. 4. see also capital punishment, corporal punishment

Easton's Bible Dictionary

The New Testament lays down the general principles of good government, but contains no code of laws for the punishment of offenders. Punishment proceeds on the principle that there is an eternal distinction between right and wrong, and that this distinction must be maintained for its own sake. It is not primarily intended for the reformation of criminals, nor for the purpose of deterring others from sin. These results may be gained, but crime in itself demands punishment. (See MURDER ?T0002621; THEFT.)

Endless, of the impenitent and unbelieving. The rejection of this doctrine "cuts the ground from under the gospel...blots out the attribute of retributive justice; transmutes sin into misfortune instead of guilt; turns all suffering into chastisement; converts the piacular work of Christ into moral influence...The attempt to retain the evangelical theology in connection with it is futile" (Shedd).

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Chastisement, castigation, scourging, correction, discipline. 2. Penalty.

Moby Thesaurus

abuse, admonishment, admonition, amercement, avengement, banishment, battering, beating, caning, cashiering, castigating, castigation, chastening, chastisement, chastising, comeuppance, compensation, correction, criticism, damage, desert, deserts, discipline, disciplining, dressing-down, electrocution, excommunication, execution, exile, fine, flogging, hanging, harm, imprisonment, incarceration, injury, just deserts, lashing, maltreatment, mauling, mulct, paddling, penal retribution, penalization, penalty, penance, price, punition, quittance, rebuke, recompense, reprisal, reproof, requital, retribution, revenge, reward, rod, scolding, scourging, sentence, sentencing, spanking, thrashing, torture, trouncing, what for, what is due, what is merited, whipping