Dictionary Definition
castigate
Verb
1 censure severely; "She chastised him for his
insensitive remarks" [syn: chastise, objurgate, chasten, correct]
2 inflict severe punishment on
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Etymology
Early 17th cent., from etyl la castigatus, past participle of castigo from castus.Pronunciation
- /ˈkæs.tɪ.geɪt/|/ˈkæs.tə.geɪt/, /"k
Extensive Definition
Castigation (from the Latin
castigatio), or chastisement (via the French châtiment), is the
infliction of severe (moral or corporal) punishment. One who
administers a castigation is a castigator or
chastiser.
In earlier times, castigation
specifically meant restoring one to a religiously pure state,
called chastity. In
ancient Rome, it was also a term for the magistrate called a censor
(in the original sense, rather than the later politicized
evolution), who castigated in the name of the pagan state religion
but with the authority of the 'pious' state.
In Christian times, this
terminology was adopted but roughly restricted to the physical
sphere: chastity became a matter of approved sexual conduct,
castigation usually meaning physical
punishment, either as a form of penance, as a voluntary pious
exercise (see
mortification of the flesh) or as educational or other
coercion, while the use for other (e.g. verbal) punishments (and
criticism etc.) is now often perceived as
metaphorical.
Self-castigation is applied by
the repentant culprit to himself, for moral and/or religious
reasons, notably as penance.
See also
castigate in German:
Züchtigung
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
assail, attack, baste, beat, belabor, berate, blister, bring to account, bring
to book, call to account, carpet, chasten, chastise, chew out, correct, criticize, deal with, discipline, dress down,
drub, excoriate, flay, fustigate, inflict upon,
keelhaul, lash, masthead, penalize, pillory, pummel, punish, rail, rate, rebuke, reprimand, roast, scarify, scathe, scorch, scourge, settle with, skin
alive, slash, square
accounts, take to task, tell off, thrash, tick off, tongue-lash,
trounce, upbraid, visit upon, wig