PUN'ISH, 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.