Synonyms for punish
ˈpʌn ɪʃ

Princeton's WordNet(2.33 / 3 votes)Rate these synonyms:

1. punish, penalize, penalise(verb)

   impose a penalty on; inflict punishment on

   "The students were penalized for showing up late for class"; "we had to punish the dog for soiling the floor again"

   Synonyms:
   penalize, penalise

Wiktionary(4.00 / 2 votes)Rate these synonyms:

1. punish(verb)

   Synonyms:
   castigate

2. punish(verb)

   To cause to suffer for crime or misconduct, to administer disciplinary action.

   Synonyms:
   castigate

3. punish(verb)

   To cause great harm to. (a punishing blow)

   Synonyms:
   castigate

4. punish(verb)

   To dumb down severely or to the point of uselessness or near-uselessness.

   Synonyms:
   castigate

English Synonyms and Antonyms(3.00 / 2 votes)Rate these synonyms:

1. punish

   Avenge and revenge, once close synonyms, are now far apart in meaning. To avenge is to visit some offense with punishment, in order to vindicate the righteous, or to uphold and illustrate the right by the suffering or destruction of the wicked. "And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian," Acts vii, 24. To revenge is to inflict harm or suffering upon another through personal anger and resentment at something done to ourselves. Avenge is unselfish; revenge is selfish. Revenge, according to present usage, could not be said of God. To retaliate may be necessary for self-defense, without the idea of revenge. Compare REVENGE.

   Synonyms:
   avenge, retaliate, revenge, vindicate, visit

   Preposition:
   Avenge on or upon (rarely, avenge oneself of) a wrong-doer.

Complete Dictionary of Synonyms and Antonyms(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate these synonyms:

1. punish

   Synonyms:
   chastise, castigate, chasten, correct, whip, scourge

   Antonyms:
   reward, recompense, remunerate, indemnify

Dictionary of English Synonymes(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate these synonyms:

1. punish(v. a.)

   Synonyms:
   chastise, castigate, lash, chasten, discipline, correct, scourge, whip

Synonyms, Antonyms & Associated Words(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate these synonyms:

1. punish(v)

   Synonyms:
   chastise, castigate, chasten, discipline

PPDB, the paraphrase database(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate these synonyms:

1. List of paraphrases:

   punishing, penalise, penalize, sanction, punishment, suppress, chastise, flog, smite, criminalize, suppression, repress, penalties

How to pronounce punish?

Alex

US English

Daniel

British

Karen

Australian

Veena

Indian

How to say punish in sign language?

Words popularity by usage frequency

How to use punish in a sentence?

1. Billy Easley:

   This bill would punish success in the next generation of innovative startups and prevent them from achieving their full potential.

2. Donna Lieberman:

   Our correctional system does not exist to punish people, and the fundamental premise of our parole system is to allow people to repair their lives, today, the parole board delivered an important message to the entire country, and showed that New York stands for justice and recognizes that those incarcerated should be given a chance to return to society.

3. Yacoub El Hillo:

   At this moment when Libya is fighting the threats of the COVID-19 pandemic, access to water and electricity is more than ever life saving, and such individual acts to collectively punish millions of innocent people are abhorrent and must stop immediately.

4. Ken Paxton:

   This case is about abusing the power of the subpoena to force Exxon to turn over many decades’ worth of records, so an attorney general with an agenda can pore over them in hopes of finding something incriminating, [It] ... represents an effort to punish Exxon for daring to hold an opinion on climate change that differs from that of radical environmentalists.

5. Idris Nassan:

   Not being able to participate in events or discussions is a stigma and for our society it is a big deal. Prison is the last resort, this is because we want to change the culture and not just punish the crime. We want men to understand violence against women is not socially accepted any longer.

Images & Illustrations of punish