 3 definitions found
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
punishing
adjective
1: resulting in punishment; "the king imposed a punishing tax"
2: characterized by toilsome effort to the point of exhaustion;
especially physical effort; "worked their arduous way up
the mining valley"; "a grueling campaign"; "hard labor";
"heavy work"; "heavy going"; "spent many laborious hours
on the project"; "set a punishing pace" [syn: {arduous}, {backbreaking},
{grueling}, {gruelling}, {hard}, {heavy}, {laborious}, {toilsome}]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Punish \Pun"ish\, verb (used with an object) [imp. & p. p. {Punished}; p. pr. & vb.
n. {Punishing}.] [OE. punischen, F. punir, from L. punire,
punitum, akin to poena punishment, penalty. See {Pain}, and
{-ish}.]
1. To impose a penalty upon; to afflict with pain, loss, or
suffering for a crime or fault, either with or without a
view to the offender's amendment; to cause to suffer in
retribution; to chasten; as, to punish traitors with
death; a father punishes his child for willful
disobedience.
A greater power
Now ruled him, punished in the shape he sinned.
--Milton.
2. To inflict a penalty for (an offense) upon the offender;
to repay, as a fault, crime, etc., with pain or loss; as,
to punish murder or treason with death.
3. To injure, as by beating; to pommel. [Low]
4. To deal with roughly or harshly; -- chiefly used with
regard to a contest; as, our troops punished the enemy.
[Colloq. or Slang]
[Webster 1913 Suppl.]
Syn: To chastise; castigate; scourge; whip; lash; correct;
discipline. See {Chasten}.
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
53 Moby Thesaurus words for "punishing":
Herculean, arduous, backbreaking, burdensome, castigatory,
chastening, chastising, corrective, crushing, demanding,
disciplinary, draining, effortful, exhausting, fatiguesome,
fatiguing, forced, grueling, hard, hard-earned, hard-fought, heavy,
hefty, inflictive, killing, labored, laborious, onerous, operose,
oppressive, painful, penal, penological, punitive, punitory,
retributive, strained, straining, strenuous, stressful, taxing,
tiresome, tiring, toilsome, torturous, tough, troublesome, trying,
uphill, weariful, wearing, wearisome, wearying
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