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American Dictionary of the English Language

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Punish


PUN'ISH, verb transitive [Latin punio, from the root of poena, pain. The primary sense is to press or strain.]

1. To pain; to afflict with pain, loss or calamity for a crime or fault; primarily, to afflict with bodily pain, as to punish a thief with pillory or stripes; but the word is applied also to affliction by loss of property, by transportation, banishment, seclusion from society, etc. The laws require murderers to be punished with death. Other offenders are to be punished with fines, imprisonment, hard labor, etc. God punishes men for their sins with calamities personal and national.

2. To chastise; as, a father punishes his child for disobedience.

3. To regard with pain or suffering inflicted on the offender; applied to the crime; as, to punish murder or theft.