chasten

verb chas·ten \ ˈchā-sᵊn \

Updated on: 30 Mar 2018

Definition of chasten

chastened; chastening play \ˈchās-niŋ, ˈchā-sᵊn-iŋ\

transitive verb

1 : to correct by punishment or suffering : discipline

If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men
—2 Samuel 7: 14 (King James Version)

also : purify

2 a : to prune (something, such as a work or style of art) of excess, pretense, or falsity : refine

b : to cause to be more humble or restrained : subdue

He was chastened by his team's defeat.

—

chastener

play \ˈchās-nər, ˈchā-sᵊn-ər\ noun

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Examples of chasten in a Sentence

chastened the child with five minutes of sitting in the corner
the unexpected loss to a second-rate player really chastened the tournament's top-seeded tennis star

Recent Examples of chasten from the Web

Xavier, at times, looked like a team chastened by the physicality, or at least a team unable to cope with it.

— patrick brennan, Cincinnati.com, "How the West was lost: Takeaways from Xavier basketball's early NCAA Tournament exit," 19 Mar. 2018
The company is among a group of large Chinese firms chastened by the government for making splashy overseas purchases of hotels, movie theaters and film production companies.

— alexandra stevenson and cao li, New York Times, "Cash-Strapped Chinese Giant Taps a New Money Source: Its Workers," 1 Feb. 2018
The company was chastened in 2015 when it was fined $975 million by the Chinese government, which charged the firm with unfair pricing.

— david pierson, latimes.com, "Blocking of Qualcomm takeover could end the tech industry's cozy ties to Beijing," 13 Mar. 2018
There is no sense of chastening or remorse on the right.

— jonathan chait, Daily Intelligencer, "‘The Memo’ Follows the Republican Plan to Destroy Neutral Authority," 5 Feb. 2018
When contacted by NBC News, the journalists identified by the Times as having bought Twitter followers had a range of responses: Many ducked requests for comment, others blamed associates, while just one sounded chastened.

— james rainey, NBC News, "Journalists struggle to explain why they bought fake twitter followers," 3 Feb. 2018
Westbrook and Tipirneni are also emblematic of the divide between the party’s ascendant left and chastened center in the wake of Hillary Clinton’s loss to Donald Trump.

— graham vyse, New Republic, "The Women Who Want to Turn Trent Franks’s Seat Blue," 11 Jan. 2018
Collin Street Bakery says it has been chastened by the experience.

— star-telegram, "A tale of trust betrayed at landmark Corsicana bakery | Fort Worth Star-Telegram," 11 Mar. 2014
The Commission had been chastened by an earlier controversy over a device called the Hush-A-Phone.

— matthew lasar, Ars Technica, "Any lawful device: Revisiting Carterfone on the eve of the Net Neutrality vote," 13 Dec. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'chasten.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

If you say you would "castigate" or "chastise" someone in order to "chasten" them, you demonstrate a good knowledge of the origin of "chasten" - all three verbs derive from the Latin verb castigare, meaning "to punish." The trio shares an initial sense of "to subject to severe and often physical punishment," but all three verbs are now as likely to refer to a verbal dressing-down as a physical lesson. "Chasten" (which arrived in English via Anglo-French chastier) can also be used to mean "to prune of excess, pretense, or falsity." This led to the more general sense of "to make more subdued," although the humility can be imposed by a humiliating situation as easily as by a strict taskmaster.

Origin and Etymology of chasten

alteration of obsolete English chaste to chasten, from Middle English, from Anglo-French chastier, from Latin castigare, from castus + -igare (from agere to drive) — more at act

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1526

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chasten Synonyms

Synonym Discussion of chasten

punish, chastise, castigate, chasten, discipline, correct mean to inflict a penalty on in requital for wrongdoing. punish implies subjecting to a penalty for wrongdoing.