chastisement

American  

[chas-tiz-muhnt, chas-tahyz-] / ˈtʃæs tɪz mənt, tʃæsˈtaɪz- /

noun

1. severe criticism; a rebuke or strong reprimand.

2. corporal punishment; a beating.

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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

First recorded in 1275–1325; chastise + -ment

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."

Example Sentences

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

By the turn of the 20th century, the doctrine of chastisement had been largely repudiated.

From Slate • Oct. 5, 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

I did not need to be guided to the well-known room, to which I had so often been summoned for chastisement or reprimand in former days.

From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë