punishment

I

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

Applying a penalty for an offense

Nouns

1. punishment; chastisement, chastening; correction, castigation; discipline, infliction, trial; judgment, penalty; retribution; thunderbolt, nemesis; requital, retaliation; penology. See pain, killing.

2. (modes of punishment) capital punishment, execution, electrocution, hanging, gassing, firing squad, decapitation, crucifixion, lynching, stoning; imprisonment (see prison, restraint); torture, rack, thumbscrew, question; transportation, banishment, expulsion, exile, ostracism, Coventry (see ejection); stocks, pillory, ducking stool; penal servitude, hard labor, solitary confinement; galleys; beating, hiding, rawhiding, flagellation, the lash, gauntlet, whipping post; rap on the knuckles, spanking, thrashing, box on the ear; blow (see impulse); walking the plank, keelhauling; picket[ing]; martyrdom, autoda-fé; harakiri, tarring and feathering, riding on a rail; fine, forfeit. Informal, the chair. Slang, hot seat, rope necktie, necktie party, kangaroo court, Judge Lynch, Jack Ketch.

3. (implements of punishment) scourge, whip, lash [of scorpions], etc., drop, gallows, gibbet, scaffold, rope, noose, halter; block, ax; stake, cross; guillotine, electric chair, gas chamber.

Verbs

1. punish, penalize, chastise, chasten; fine, dock; castigate, correct, inflict punishment; retaliate, administer correction, deal out justice; visit upon; pay; make short work of, give short shrift, give a lesson to, serve one right, let one have it, give it to, make an example of; thrash, flog, spank, cane, whale away, whip; beat or mess up. Informal, give one his comeuppance; paddle; lower the boom; tan one's hide, skin alive; settle one's hash, throw the book at. Slang, give what for, give hell, make it hot for, work over, kick ass.

2. strike, hit, etc. (see impulse).

3. execute, electrocute; behead, decapitate, guillotine; hang, gibbet, bowstring; shoot; decimate; burn at the stake; boil in oil; break on the wheel; crucify; tar and feather; impale, flay; lynch; torture, put on the rack, picket. Informal, string up. Slang, burn, fry. See killing.

4. banish, exile, transport, expel, ostracize; rusticate; drum out; dismiss, disbar, disbench; demote; strike off the roll, unfrock; post. See ejection.

5. suffer punishment; take one's medicine, face the music; pay the piper, the fiddler, or the price. Slang, take it, take the rap.

Adjectives — punishing, penal, punitory, punitive; castigatory; capital.

Phrases — spare the rod and spoil the child; if you can't do the time, don't do the crime.

Quotations — Men are not hanged for stealing horses, but that horses may not be stolen (Lord Halifax), Let the punishment fit the crime (W. S. Gilbert), Punishment brings wisdom. It is the healing art of wickedness (Plato), The reformative effect of punishment is a belief that dies hard, chiefly, I think, because it is so satisfying to our sadistic impulses (Bertrand Russell).

Antonyms, see compensation.

II

(Roget's IV) n.

Syn. correction, discipline, reproof, penalty, infliction, suffering, deprivation, unhappiness, trial, penance, retribution, deserts, just deserts, mortification, sequestration, disciplinary action, amercement, fine, mulct, reparation, forfeiture, forfeit, confiscation, dose of strap oil*, carrot-and-stick treatment*, bit of one's mind*, rap on the knuckles*; see also execution 2 , sentence 1 .

Ant. freedom*, exoneration, release.

III

(Roget's 3 Superthesaurus) n.

penalty, discipline, disciplinary action, chastening, chastisement, retribution, *one's due, comeuppance, *just deserts, castigation, penance, *the rod, reparation, fine, sentencing, whipping, beating, torture, *slap on the wrist. A sort of medicine.''—Aristotle. ''Justice for the unjust.''—Saint Augustine. ''Sin is a suppurating wound; punishment is the surgeon's knife.''—Saint John Chrysostom.

ANT.: reward, praise, commendation

WORD FIND

• beheader: guillotine board with head and hand holes to lock in

• and humiliate offender in public: pillory

• eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth: talion

• frame with ankle, wrist holes to lock in offender: stocks

• hanging, instrument of: gallows, gibbet

• illegal: cruel and unusual

• isolation from others: solitary confinement

• neck, iron collar tightened around: garrote

• ruler or stick to punish children: ferule

• soles of feet, beating with stick: bastinado

• stretching device: rack

• tar and feather: tar and feather

• vigilantes, execution by: lynching

• yoke fastened around neck, Chinese: cangue

see prison, torture

IV

(Roget's Thesaurus II) noun Something, such as loss, pain, or confinement, imposed for wrongdoing: castigation, chastisement, correction, discipline, penalty. See REWARD.