KJV Dictionary Definition: punish

punish

PUN'ISH, v.t. L. punio, from the root of poena,pain. The primary sense is to press or strain.

1. To pain; to afflict with pain, loss or calamity for a crime or fault; primarily, to afflict with bodily pain, as to punish a thief with pillory or stripes; but the word is applied also to affliction by loss of property, by transportation, banishment, seclusion from society, &c. The laws require murderers to be punished with death. Other offenders are to be punished with fines, imprisonment, hard labor,&c. God punishes men for their sins with calamities personal and national.

2. To chastise; as, a father punishes his child for disobedience.

3. To regard with pain or suffering inflicted on the offender; applied to the crime; as, to punish murder or theft.

punishable

PUN'ISHABLE, a. Worthy of punishment.

1. Liable to punishment; capable of being punished by law or right; applied to persons or offenses; as, a man is punishable for robbery or for trespass; a crime is punishable by law.

punishableness

PUN'ISHABLENESS, n. The quality of deserving or being liable to punishment.

punished

PUN'ISHED, pp. Afflicted with pain or evil as the retribution of a crime or offense; chastised.

punisher

PUN'ISHER, n. One that inflicts pain, loss or other evil for a crime or offense.

punishing

PUN'ISHING, ppr. Afflicting with pain, penalty or suffering of any kind, as the retribution of a crime or offense.

punishment

PUN'ISHMENT, n. Any pain or suffering inflicted on a person for a crime or offense, by the authority to which the offender is subject, either by the constitution of God or of civil society. The punishment of the faults and offenses of children by the parent, is by virtue of the right of government with which the parent is invested by God himself. This species of punishment is chastisement or correction. The punishment of crimes against the laws is inflicted by the supreme power of the state in virtue of the right of government, vested in the prince or legislature. The right of punishment belongs only to persons clothed with authority. Pain, loss or evil willfully inflicted on another for his crimes or offenses by a private unauthorized person, is revenge rather than punishment.

Some punishments consist in exile or transportation, others in loss of liberty by imprisonment; some extend to confiscation by forfeiture of lands and goods, others induce a disability of holding offices, of being heirs and the like.

Divine punishments are doubtless designed to secure obedience to divine laws, and uphold the moral order of created intelligent beings.

The rewards and punishments of another life, which the almighty has established as the enforcements of his law, are of weight enough to determine the choice against whatever pleasure or pain this life can show.

Definitions from Webster's American Dictionary of the English Language, 1828.
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