Punish, chastise, castigate, chasten, discipline, correct mean to inflict pain, loss, or suffering upon a person for his sin, crime, or fault.
Punish implies imposing a penalty for violation of law, disobedience of authority, or intentional wrongdoing.
Chastise may suggest the infliction of corporal punishment and sometimes implies an acting in anger, but more often with a view to reformation or amendment.
Sometimes chastise implies verbal censure or denunciation and then comes close to castigate which usually implies severe and often public lashing by tongue or pen rather than by whip or rod, and so suggests painful censure or bitter rebuke.
Chasten usually implies subjection to affliction or trial with the aim not so much of punishment as of a testing whereby one may emerge humbled and purified or strengthened.
Discipline (see also TEACH ) implies punishment, chastisement, or sometimes chastening, with the intent to subjugate, subdue, or bring under one’s control.
Correct implies punishment having for its aim the amendment or reformation of the offender.