punish

1. (transitive) To cause (a child, student, or someone else being looked after, or a suspect or criminal) to suffer for crime or misconduct, to administer disciplinary action, typically by an authority or a person in authority (for example: a parent, teacher, or police officer).Examples: "If a prince violates the law, then he must be punished like an ordinary person."; "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."; "The law needs to punish this behaviour as a deterrent to others."Synonyms: castigatetransitive

2. (transitive, figuratively) To treat harshly and unfairly.Examples: "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."; "Homer, moreover, gives the impression that the Sun punished Odysseus's men; but we are later told that the Sun cannot punish individual men […]"; "The rider who comes back on his horse in mid-air over a fence is punishing his horse severely."Synonyms: mistreatfigurativelytransitive

3. (transitive, colloquial) To handle or beat severely; to maul.colloquialtransitive

4. (transitive, colloquial) To consume a large quantity of.Examples: "A few moments later, we were all sitting around the veranda of the hunters' dining hall, punishing the gin, as usual."colloquialtransitive