different between punish vs correct

English

Alternative forms

• punishe (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English punischen, from Anglo-Norman, Old French puniss-, stem of some of the conjugated forms of punir, from Latin puni? (“to inflict punishment upon”), from poena (“punishment, penalty”); see pain.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?p?n??/
• Hyphenation: pun?ish

Verb

punish (third-person singular simple present punishes, present participle punishing, simple past and past participle punished)

1. (transitive) To cause to suffer for crime or misconduct, to administer disciplinary action.
   • 1818, William Cobbett, The Parliamentary History of England, from the Earliest Period to the Year 1803, page 255

     It was not from the want of proper laws that dangerous principles had been disseminated, and had assumed a threatening aspect, but because those laws had not been employed by the executive power to remedy the evil, and to punish the offenders.

   • 2007, Matthew Weait, Intimacy and Responsibility: The Criminalisation of HIV Transmission, Routledge (?ISBN), page 80

     The law needs to punish this behaviour as a deterrent to others.

   • 2017, Joyce Carol Oates, Double Delight, Open Road Media (?ISBN)

     His mother had punished him when he'd deserved it. She'd loved him, he was “all she had,” but she'd punished him, too.

   Synonym: castigate

2. (transitive, figuratively) To treat harshly and unfairly.
   • 1994, Valerie Polakow, Lives on the Edge: Single Mothers and Their Children in the Other America, University of Chicago Press (?ISBN), page 68

     But each effort that Anna makes —and she has attempted many— meets with obstacles from a welfare bureaucracy that punishes single mothers for initiative and partial economic self-sufficiency.

   • 2008, Seth Benardete, The Bow and the Lyre: A Platonic Reading of the Odyssey, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (?ISBN), page 5

     Homer, moreover, gives the impression that the Sun punished Odysseus's men; but we are later told that the Sun cannot punish individual men […]

   • 2009, Gordon Wright, Learning to Ride, Hunt, and Show, Skyhorse Publishing Inc. (?ISBN), page 44

     The rider who comes back on his horse in mid-air over a fence is punishing his horse severely.

   Synonym: mistreat

3. (transitive, colloquial) To handle or beat severely; to maul.
4. (transitive, colloquial) To consume a large quantity of.
   • 1970, Doc Greene, The Memory Collector (page 49)

     A few moments later, we were all sitting around the veranda of the hunters' dining hall, punishing the gin, as usual.

Derived terms

• punishable
• punisher (noun)
• punishing
• punishment (noun)
• telish, telishment

Related terms

• pain

Translations

Further reading

• punish in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• punish in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• push in, push-in, pushin', unship

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k????kt/
• Rhymes: -?kt
• Hyphenation: cor?rect

Etymology 1

Borrowed from French correct, from Latin correctus (“improved, amended, correct”), past participle of corrigere, conrigere (“to make straight, make right, make better, improve, correct”), from com- (“together”) + regere (“to make straight, rule”).

Adjective

correct (comparative more correct, superlative most correct)

1. Free from error; true; accurate.

2. With good manners; well behaved; conforming with accepted standards of behaviour.

Synonyms

• (free from error): right
• (with good manners): well-mannered, well behaved

Antonyms

• (without error): incorrect, inaccurate
• (with good manners): uncouth

Derived terms

Translations

Interjection

correct

1. (India) Used to indicate acknowledgement or acceptance.

   Synonym: OK

Etymology 2

From Middle English correcten, borrowed from Anglo-Norman correcter, from Latin correctus.

Verb

correct (third-person singular simple present corrects, present participle correcting, simple past and past participle corrected)

1. (transitive) To make something that was wrong become right; to remove error from.
   • 2012, Christoper Zara, Tortured Artists: From Picasso and Monroe to Warhol and Winehouse, the Twisted Secrets of the World's Most Creative Minds, part 1, chapter 1, 27:

     Her millions of adoring fans had yet to hear her speak, and when she finally did, she sounded more like a sailor than a starlet, spewing a profanity-laced, G-dropping Brooklynese that no amount of dialect coaching could correct.

2. (by extension, transitive) To grade (examination papers).

3. (transitive) To inform (someone) of their error.

4. (transitive) To discipline; to punish.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:repair

Derived terms

Translations

Further reading

• correct in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• correct in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• correct at OneLook Dictionary Search

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French correct, from Latin corr?ctus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k??r?kt/
• Hyphenation: cor?rect
• Rhymes: -?kt

Adjective

correct (comparative correcter, superlative correctst)

1. correct

Inflection

Synonyms

• juist

Derived terms

• correctheid
• incorrect

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin correctus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k?.??kt/
• (Quebec, informal) IPA^(key): /k?.??k/

Adjective

correct (feminine singular correcte, masculine plural corrects, feminine plural correctes)

1. correct, right

2. (colloquial) passable, okay

3. (Quebec, colloquial) OK, fine, alright

Derived terms

• politiquement correct

Related terms

• correctement
• correctif
• correction
• corriger
• incorrect
• incorrectement

Further reading

• “correct” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).