punished

verb

past tense of punish
as in penalized
to inflict a penalty on for a fault or crime the child was punished for breaking dishes on purpose if caught, the thief will be severely punished

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of punished Stress that their devices won’t be taken away as a result, and they won’t be punished for speaking up. — Gili Malinsky, CNBC, 2 July 2026 Paraguay’s Miguel Almirón was the first player to be punished under the new rule when he was sent off in a group stage match against Turkey last week. — ABC News, 1 July 2026 This is a state agency taking action against a license for violations already punished in a different state. — David J. Neal july 5, Miami Herald, 5 July 2026 Mexico punished the Czech Republic’s sloppiness with aplomb after weathering their opponents’ good start, scoring all three goals in the second half. — Anantaajith Raghuraman, New York Times, 5 July 2026 Why had Balogun been punished so severely when other seemingly similar plays in this World Cup had avoided punishment altogether? — Becky Sullivan, NPR, 6 July 2026 Months later, Brian Cox told The Hollywood Reporter in December 2024 that Spacey had been punished enough. — Marina Watts, Entertainment Weekly, 29 June 2026 Even though the president nominates agency leaders, those commissioners are confirmed by the Senate and must not be unfairly punished for exercising independent judgment, Potter said. — Maureen Groppe, USA Today, 29 June 2026 Wall Street has punished the company amid steep losses in its cable TV and broadband internet units, and because NBCUniversal has historically generated its biggest profits from its cable channels. — Meg James, Los Angeles Times, 2 July 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for punished
  1. penalized
  2. fined
  3. sentenced
  4. convicted
  5. criticized
  6. disciplined
  7. chastised
  8. corrected
Verb
  • Property owners who fail to respond to the city can also be penalized.
    — Brian Maass, CBS News, 2 July 2026
  • This was competitors at each other’s throats – sure, literally so is a bit much – and variously penalized for it.
    — Brian Hamilton, New York Times, 2 July 2026
Definition of penalized
Verb
  • This often means that those who are not persuaded by its teachings can be fined, jailed, even killed.
    — Kenneth Seeskin, Chicago Tribune, 5 July 2026
  • Both players were also fined undisclosed amounts and ejected during the game.
    — Alejandro Avila OutKick, FOXNews.com, 3 July 2026
Definition of fined
Verb
  • Kohberger later pleaded guilty to four counts of murder and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
    — Sarah Rumpf-Whitten, FOXNews.com, 5 July 2026
  • Oyler has been sentenced to 25 years to life in state prison.
    — Samira Asma-Sadeque, PEOPLE, 5 July 2026
Definition of sentenced
Verb
  • That and a cascade of circumstantial evidence led to him being convicted of the crime in 2010.
    — Taylor Croft, AJC.com, 6 July 2026
  • Jimmy Syhathep was convicted July 2 of carjacking, evading officers, hit-and-run and felony possession of a firearm, a spokesperson for the Sacramento District Attorney’s Office wrote in a statement issued Monday.
    — Reeti Malhotra July 6, Sacbee.com, 6 July 2026
Definition of convicted
Verb
  • The program posed a massive political problem for Mamdani, who’s been criticized by both his allies and opponents for his stance.
    — Josephine Stratman, New York Daily News, 30 June 2026
  • While state studies have criticized the state’s education governance model, voters have rejected at least four attempts dating back to 1928 to reform the position.
    — Lia Russell, Sacbee.com, 30 June 2026
Definition of criticized
Verb
  • Many liberals had been disciplined to adopt methods that purported to strictly confine legal interpretation, only to discover that their most prominent adherents, whether covertly or unconsciously, had other plans.
    — Jeannie Suk Gersen, New Yorker, 2 July 2026
  • None of the deputies have been suspended or disciplined, but internal affairs is looking into what happened, McDaniel said.
    — Charlotte Observer, Charlotte Observer, 2 July 2026
Definition of disciplined
Verb
  • On Thursday, Vance chastised Israeli officials who were publicly criticizing the agreement.
    — Quinn Scanlan, ABC News, 21 June 2026
  • An April 1959 editorial in The Times chastised residents who implied the Friends were trying to enrich themselves.
    — Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 19 June 2026
Definition of chastised
Verb
  • After his own vision was corrected as a child, an encounter with a child his age in Cairo — living a starkly different life — sparked a lifelong mission to help others see.
    — Ashoka, Forbes.com, 30 June 2026
  • By the time the boundary issues were partially corrected in the 1960s, both the cemetery and the surrounding Black community had been largely erased from public memory.
    — Kamal Morgan. Produced with AI assistance, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 29 June 2026
Definition of corrected

Browse Nearby Words

punishable
punished
punisher
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Cite this Entry

“Punished.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/punished. Accessed 7 Jul. 2026.

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More from Merriam-Webster on punished

Nglish: Translation of punished for Spanish Speakers

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