punishes

verb

present tense third-person singular of punish
as in penalizes
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

Relevance

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 punishes The shortfall that punishes success The system can also make serving more children harder, not easier. — Tim Grailer, Fortune, 19 Sep. 2026 The market already punishes models that behave in unpredictable or unauthorized ways. — Kevin Breuninger,cj Haddad, CNBC, 14 Sep. 2026 If, as Jimmy Connors has said, tennis is boxing at ninety feet—a lonely battle of wills that punishes the slightest lapse in concentration—Eala’s southpaw forehand drives resemble Pacquiao’s blazing left hooks. — Albert Samaha, New Yorker, 29 Aug. 2026 The result is a system that unfairly punishes Las Vegas residents who have worked to conserve water, Nevada officials say. — Brandon Loomis, AZCentral.com, 24 Aug. 2026 Alex Williamson is a mom in the district who thinks that the new policy is too broad and punishes the kids who ride their e-bikes safely. — Michele Gile, CBS News, 11 Aug. 2026 Sehnaoui's meeting with the Israeli leader occurred as some in Lebanon have called for abolishing a 1955 law that bans dealing with Israel or having contacts with Israelis and punishes offenders with up to 10 years in jail. — ABC News, 29 July 2026 Everybody is behaving sensibly inside a structure that punishes sense. — Vibhas Ratanjee, Forbes.com, 29 July 2026 But Telegram founder Pavel Durov said the ban needlessly punishes the over 150 million Telegram users in the country, instead of the insiders who leaked the exam materials. — Mithil Aggarwal, NBC news, 20 June 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for punishes
  1. penalizes
  2. fines
  3. criticizes
  4. chastises
  5. sentences
  6. corrects
Verb
  • The comments from Beijing came days after France started applying its anti-ultra-fast fashion law, which penalizes each item between 25 cents and 12 euros (over $13).
    — Roy Stephen Canivel, Footwear News, 8 Sep. 2026
  • Many automakers have been pushing for a revised USMCA that better rewards domestic manufacturing and penalizes competitors reliant on foreign imports.
    — Jamie L. LaReau, Freep.com, 28 Aug. 2026
Definition of penalizes
Verb
  • Whether the league responds to Booker’s complaints — or fines him for them — the conversation around officiating in this series is far from over.
    — Hanna Wickes, Miami Herald, 23 Apr. 2026
  • The state of California also fines taxpayers who didn’t withhold enough from their paychecks, with rates varying by offense.
    — Alexiah Syrai Olsen, Sacbee.com, 7 Apr. 2026
Definition of fines
Verb
  • The piece also criticizes media and academic discussions that portray Latino men and Latinas as politically opposed blocs.
    — Gustavo Arellano, Los Angeles Times, 25 Sep. 2026
  • The Bolsonaro reaction Flávio Bolsonaro, by contrast, criticizes Brazilian democratic institutions – particularly the Supreme Court and the electoral system – as obstacles to restoring the country’s political order.
    — Andre Pagliarini, The Conversation, 22 Sep. 2026
Definition of criticizes
Verb
  • Later, after clearing the Silo 1 control room, Victor both chastises Camille for her failures and grudgingly praises her for lying so convincingly that his biometric lie detectors couldn’t detect it.
    — Noel Murray, Vulture, 4 Sep. 2026
  • The respected 13th-century Spanish rabbi Nachmanides (Ramban) chastises Lot for the atrocity of offering his daughters in place of the angels.
    — Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica, 2 July 2026
Definition of chastises
Verb
  • Lench ruled at the time that Weinstein cannot serve his New York and Los Angeles sentences concurrently.
    — Alexandra Del Rosario, Los Angeles Times, 25 Sep. 2026
  • Then with Lee, in the timeline closest to our present day, her heartbreaking, hard-to-stomach testimony means nothing to a callous judge who sentences her to death three times over.
    — Ben Travers, IndieWire, 18 Sep. 2026
Definition of sentences
Verb
  • IonQ attributes this feat to its dual decoder architecture, where the first decoder extracts the initial syndrome measurements while the second decoder corrects the residual errors after refining the intermediate representation.
    — Ameya Paleja, Interesting Engineering, 23 Sep. 2026
  • This story corrects the sequence of Dodgers home runs in the second paragraph to show Will Smith hit their fourth homer of the eighth inning.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 19 Sep. 2026
Definition of corrects

Browse Nearby Words

punishers
punishes
punishing
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Punishes.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/punishes. Accessed 5 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of perseverate

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

More Commonly Mispronounced Words

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

Is it 'nerve-racking' or 'nerve-wracking'?

What's the difference between 'fascism' and 'socialism'?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

7 Great Ways to Say 'Great'

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

Even More Bird Names that Sound Like Insults (and Sometimes Are)

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World
See More

Popular

See More

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

7 Great Ways to Say 'Great'

The Longest Long Words List
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
name tags
Words Named After People Quiz Find out who’s behind "leotard," "morphine," an...
See All