prepunish

P3R1E1P3U1N1I1S1H4

verb

To punish in advance.

Scrabble 16
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Meanings

verbprepunish (third-person singular simple present prepunishes, present participle prepunishing, simple past and past participle prepunished)

present singular third person prepunishes · participle present prepunishing · participle past prepunished · past prepunished

  1. transitiveTo punish in advance.

    Too many administrators place limits on their users not because of any increase in security that those limits provide, but out of some twisted desire to prepunish users for potential transgressions, in the hope that this will cow them into more quiescent obedience to the rules.

    2003, John Ray, William Ray, Mac OS X Maximum Security, page 256

Origin

From pre- + punish.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

prepunish. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/prepunish

MLA

“prepunish.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/prepunish. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “prepunish,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/prepunish.

Source: prepunish on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.