chastise
verb
(ˌ)cha-ˈstīz
Did you know?
If you want to understand the meaning of chastise (which comes from the Anglo-French verb castier, meaning “to discipline”), you could do worse than to turn to popular music. Pop, rap, jazz, rock, country—there’s not a single genre that isn’t full of songs penned from the point of view of jilted and/or cheated lovers chastising—that is, harshly criticizing—the one who did them wrong. Nearly every song on Beyoncé’s 2016 album Lemonade, for example, is a master class in chastisement (chastisement being, of course, the noun form of chastise), featuring such lyrics as “What a wicked way to treat the girl that loves you” and “Ten times out of nine, I know you’re lying.” Chastise itself pops up in lyrics occasionally, too, as sung by artists including Guns N’ Roses (“So don’t chastise me or think I mean you harm”), Dr. Dre (“Fool, you better recognize / Death Row came to chastise”), and Janet Jackson (“Control and chastise / An instrument of punishment / Like a whip”). Jackson’s use is notable in particular for representing the word’s oldest sense, less common but still in use, of “to inflict punishment on (as with a whip).”
Synonyms
Examples of chastise in a Sentence
Preezy Brown, VIBE.com, 5 Nov. 2024
The interplay between pervert audience and chastising host is a delicate dance, as old as time.
—Bethy Squires, Vulture, 4 Oct. 2024
Nearly a decade ago, while visiting a park in the U.S. with her then-nearly 3-year-old daughter, she was approached by an American parent who chastised her for sitting on a bench while her daughter ran free.
—Jackie Mader, The Christian Science Monitor, 15 Oct. 2024
Westlake says this serves an important purpose—not to chastise people for going on holiday, but to direct attention to people whose lifestyles really do have an exceptionally high carbon impact.
—Matt Reynolds, WIRED, 23 Sep. 2024
See all Example Sentences for chastise 
Dictionary Entries Near chastise
Cite this Entry
“Chastise.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/chastise. Accessed 26 Nov. 2024.
Copy CitationKids Definition
chastise
verb
Share