Other forms: chastised, chastises, chastising
To chastise is to scold or punish somebody. Chastise a child, publicly chastised, chastise them for it.
It now means a telling-off, but it once meant a beating, and the older sense still shadows the word — which is why it sounds heavier than criticise. It is a doublet of chasten and castigate: three English words from one Latin verb. Note that the object is the person, not the fault.
1verbchastiseTo scold or punish somebody.
“The teacher chastised the boys for throwing snowballs at the windows.”
chastise is a scolding.
Old French chastier comes from Latin castigare, to correct or punish, from castus, pure. Chasten and castigate are the same word.
Proto-Indo-European
*h₂eǵ-
Latin
castīgō
Old French
chastier
Middle English
chastisen
English, today
chastise
From Middle English chastisen, from Old French chastier, from Latin castīgō. See also the doublets a doublet of chasten and castigate and cf. also chaste.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA