PUNISHING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does punishing mean? 

• PUNISHING (adjective)
  The adjective PUNISHING has 2 senses:

1. resulting in punishment

2. characterized by effort to the point of exhaustion; especially physical effort

  Familiarity information: PUNISHING used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PUNISHING (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Resulting in punishment

Classified under:

Participial adjectives

Context example:

the king imposed a punishing tax

Participle:

punish (impose a penalty on; inflict punishment on)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Characterized by effort to the point of exhaustion; especially physical effort

Synonyms:

arduous; backbreaking; grueling; gruelling; hard; heavy; laborious; operose; punishing; toilsome

Context example:

set a punishing pace

Similar:

effortful (requiring great physical effort)

 Context examples 

He gave one yelp of consternation, and then her punishing jaws closed upon him.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

“Who’d have thought he was such a punishing hitter?”

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Maidstone jail is a safer place of detention, observed Traddles; and though the law may be longer in righting us, and may not be able to right us so completely as you can, there is no doubt of its punishing YOU.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

His primacy was savage, and savagely he ruled, administering justice with a club, punishing transgression with the pain of a blow, and rewarding merit, not by kindness, but by withholding a blow.

(White Fang, by Jack London)