punisher

American  

[puhn-i-sher] / ˈpʌn ɪ ʃər /

noun

punishers plural

1. a person who inflicts a penalty, such as pain, confinement, etc..

   If your response is delayed, the dog will link the punishment to the punisher and not to the transgression.

2. Sports. a person who plays or hits aggressively.

   The player is destined to be an all-American and an all-around punisher in the league.

3. a thing that inflicts pain, discomfort, etc..

   I ran out of time on the test because of one punisher—a question I should have left for last.

4. something that deters or dissuades.

   Any stimulus which makes the behavior it follows more frequent is a reinforcer, even if it is intended as a punisher.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• self-punisher
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• punishers
  plural

Etymology

Origin of punisher

punish ( def. ) + -er ¹ ( def. )

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

punisher punishers

We all suddenly knew our great friendly teacher was a punisher.

From Washington Post ● Dec. 28, 2022

While not a system punisher by a long shot, it ran at almost 200 frames per second and looked fantastic on the high refresh rate display.

From The Verge ● Aug. 18, 2022

Stanton played punisher all weekend at Fenway Park, lifting the Yankees to the top spot in the American League wild-card race with a three-game sweep of the Boston Red Sox.

From New York Times ● Sep. 27, 2021

I even have a little "punisher wave" that some of my friends know about, where it's like a signal to come and save me.

From BBC ● Dec. 16, 2020

He is too much like the suitors now to be their punisher.

From Homer's Odyssey A Commentary by Snider, Denton Jaques

But that’s only after so much to relish from the exploits of one of literature’s archetypal punishers, who welcomes nightmares, he explains, because “They keep my wounds fresh.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 20, 2024

“There is no place in the world for executioners, punishers and Nazis,” he said.

From Washington Post ● May 9, 2022

Caring about others, empathising, loving them, liberates each of us; these bereft figures seem to be prisoners of their selfishness before they are punishers of others.

From The Guardian ● Oct. 12, 2017

The people in the group that imagined taking revenge consistently thought it would feel better than the actual punishers found it to be.

From Salon ● Mar. 19, 2017

Let men’s eyes be opened, and it appears clear enough, that the punishers have and do break the Law of Equity and Reason more or as much as those who are punished by them.”

From The Digger Movement in the Days of the Commonwealth As Revealed in the Writings of Gerrard Winstanley, the Digger, Mystic and Rationalist, Communist and Social Reformer by Berens, Lewis Henry