Punish vs Prevent - What's the difference?
punish | prevent |
To cause to suffer for crime or misconduct, to administer disciplinary action.
To cause great harm to. (a punishing blow )
To dumb down severely or to the point of uselessness or near-uselessness.
To stop; to keep (from happening).
* {{quote-news
, year=2011
, date=October 1
, author=Tom Fordyce
, title=Rugby World Cup 2011: England 16-12 Scotland
, work=BBC Sport
* 1897 , Henry James, What Maisie Knew :
(obsolete) To come before; to precede.
* Bible, 1 Thess. iv. 15
* Book of Common Prayer
* Prior
(obsolete) To outdo, surpass.
* 1596 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , IV.i:
(obsolete) To be beforehand with; to anticipate.
* Alexander Pope
As verbs the difference between punish and prevent
is that punish is to cause to suffer for crime or misconduct, to administer disciplinary action while prevent is to stop; to keep (from happening).punish
English
Verb
(es)Synonyms
* (to cause to suffer for crime or misconduct ) castigateDerived terms
* punishable * punisher (noun ) * punishment (noun ) * (l) and (l) (through portmanteau with (etyl) )External links
* *Anagrams
* 1000 English basic wordsprevent
English
Alternative forms
* (archaic)Verb
(en verb)- I brushed my teeth to prevent them from going yellow.
citation, page= , passage=Scotland must now hope Georgia produce a huge upset and beat Argentina by at least eight points in Sunday's final Pool B match to prevent them failing to make the last eight for the first time in World Cup history.}}
- ‘I think you must be mad, and she shall not have a glimpse of it while I'm here to prevent !’
- We which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
- We pray thee that thy grace may always prevent and follow us.
- Then had I come, preventing Sheba's queen.
- With that he put his spurres vnto his steed, / With speare in rest, and toward him did fare, / Like shaft out of a bow preuenting speed.
- their ready guilt preventing thy commands