English edit

Alternative forms edit

Etymology edit

Old French chastiement, from the verb chastier, from Latin castīgō

Pronunciation edit

  • IPA(key): /ˈt͡ʃæstəzmənt/, /ˈt͡ʃæstɪzmənt/, /t͡ʃæˈstaɪzmənt/
  • (file)

Noun edit

chastisement (countable and uncountable, plural chastisements)

  1. The act of chastising; rebuke; punishment.
    • c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, []”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies [] (First Folio), London: [] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i]:
      Besides, the King hath wasted all his rods
      On late offenders, that he now doth lack
      The very instruments of chastisement;
      So that his power, like to a fangless lion,
      May offer, but not hold.
    • 1611, The Holy Bible, [] (King James Version), London: [] Robert Barker, [], →OCLC, Isaiah 53:5:
      But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
    • 1820, Washington Irving, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow[1]:
      All this he called “doing his duty by their parents;” and he never inflicted a chastisement without following it by the assurance, so consolatory to the smarting urchin, that “he would remember it and thank him for it the longest day he had to live.”
    • 1886 January 5, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Henry Jekyll’s Full Statement of the Case”, in Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC:
      Into the details of the infamy at which I thus connived (for even now I can scarce grant that I committed it) I have no design of entering; I mean but to point out the warnings and the successive steps with which my chastisement approached.
    • 1929 December 24, Winston Churchill, Hansard:
      It seems to me that as he does not respond to this extremely conciliatory treatment it may be well to try whether a change of treatment might not produce a more satisfactory result. If praise and courtesy only result in narrow, bitter partisanship, perhaps a little well-merited chastisement may procure some geniality.
    • 2019, Scottish Parliament, “Section 1, section title”, in Children (Equal Protection from Assault) (Scotland) Act 2019[2], page 1:
      Abolition of defence of reasonable chastisement

Derived terms edit

Translations edit