chastise

<font size="-1" face="arial, helvetica"> <p> <strong> <font color="#000066">Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for September 23, 2021 is:</font> </strong> </p> <p> <strong>chastise</strong> &#149; \chass-TYZE\&nbsp; &#149; <em>verb</em><br /> <p><em>Chastise</em> means "to criticize (someone) harshly for doing something wrong."</p> <p>// The boss eventually had to <em>chastise</em> certain employees for being consistently late.</p> <p><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/chastise">See the entry ></a></p> </p> <p> <strong>Examples:</strong><br /> <p>"I used to <em>chastise</em> people for not working as efficiently as the WWE. … I was judgmental and I was apprehensive and I wanted to be back in the ring because I loved that immediate gratification." — John Cena, quoted in <em>USA Today</em>, 5 Aug. 2021</p> </p> <p> <strong>Did you know?</strong><br /> <p>There are many words to express the infliction of a penalty in return for wrongdoing—for example, <em>chastise</em>, <em><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/castigate">castigate</a></em>, <em><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/chasten">chasten</a></em>, <em><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/correct">correct</a></em>, <em><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/discipline">discipline</a></em>, and <em><a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/punish">punish</a></em>. Of these, <em>chastise</em>, <em>chasten</em>, and <em>castigate</em> share similar origins as well as similar meanings. <em>Chastise</em> developed as an altered form of <em>chasten</em>, which comes from the Anglo-French <em>chastier</em>, which has its roots in the Latin verb <em>castigare</em>, which also gave English the word <em>castigate</em>.</p> <br /><br /> </p> </font>