0 to cause someone who has done something wrong or committed a crime to suffer, by hurting them, forcing them to pay money, sending them to prison, etc.:
1 to use or treat something badly, violently, or without care:
He really punishes that horse of his.
2 to cause people who have done something wrong or committed a crime to suffer by making them do something they don’t want to do or sending them to prison:
She was punished for being late to school.
Even minor infringements of the law will be severely punished.
Instead of simply punishing them, the system encourages offenders to modify their behaviour.
He said that when he was a boy, his father used to take a stick to him to punish him.
