noun
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a penalty or sanction given for any crime or offence
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the act of punishing or state of being punished
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informal rough treatment
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psychol any aversive stimulus administered to an organism as part of training
Other Word Forms
- nonpunishment noun
- overpunishment noun
- prepunishment noun
- propunishment adjective
- repunishment noun
- self-punishment noun
Etymology
Origin of punishment
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English punysshement, from Anglo-French punisement, Old French punissement; equivalent to punish + -ment
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"It's a disgusting document. It's another example of the truth being hidden for two decades. All the pain and punishment the victims have taken all these years and it was buried," he told the BBC.
From BBC
The timing has to be impeccable and a penalty try and a yellow card are the punishment for getting it wrong.
From BBC
The irony, which Mr. Crow misses, is that Marat, with his lists of enemies and scapegoats and his lust for punishment, was the ancestor of the modern totalitarians.
Under their rule, most of us have been banished to our houses, where our punishment for daring to enjoy life is to swipe our thumbs across a smartphone screen for hours on end each day.
From Salon
While Frank conceded he had seen similar challenges to the one made by the attacking midfielder receive the same punishment, he suggested it was not worthy of a sending off.
From BBC
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
