chastisement
Americannoun
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severe criticism; a rebuke or strong reprimand.
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corporal punishment; a beating.
Usage
What does chastisement mean? Chastisement is “a strong verbal reprimand” or “severe criticism,” such as the scolding a child may face for coloring on the walls—or the talking-to an employee gets for imbibing too much eggnog at the company holiday party. More commonly in British English, chastisement can also refer to corporal punishment, like a spanking or a beating. Example: The careless driver had hoped the cop would let her go with a stern chastisement, but the officer wrote her a speeding ticket.
Etymology
Origin of chastisement
Explanation
Chastisement is the act of scolding or punishing someone. If you talk back to your stern teacher, you won't be surprised by the chastisement that follows. The noun chastisement usually means a verbal reprimand, like the chastisement a basketball coach might give his team after a terrible loss. It can also describe physical punishment, or a beating — when it's used in the Bible, that's almost always what it means. The Latin root of chastise is castigare, which means "to set or keep right," or "to make pure."
Vocabulary lists containing chastisement
The Giver
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Lord of the Flies
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The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
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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.
This person is asking a serious question about retiring with $100,000 in the bank, and all they’re getting is chastisement.
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 23, 2025
“Here, we see not a god of wrath and chastisement, but the God of mercy, who takes flesh and enters the world in weakness,’’ the pope said.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 24, 2023
This brought an unusual chastisement from the Cochrane Library’s editor-in-chief, who stated it was “not an accurate representation of what the review found.”
From Scientific American ● May 5, 2023
Adopting a ban would make Scotland the first part of the UK to outlaw the physical punishment of children, with parents in England, Wales and Northern Ireland currently allowed to use "reasonable chastisement".
From BBC ● Sep. 6, 2018
In his other life Maurice had received chastisement for filling a younger eye with sand.
From "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding
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.
