corporal punishment

noun

: punishment that involves hitting someone : physical punishment
The school banned corporal punishment many years ago.

Examples of corporal punishment in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
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He was convicted of a felony carjacking in November 1999 and convicted of a felony in June 2000 for inflicting corporal punishment on a spouse or cohabitant, both in California, according to court documents. Ron Wood, arkansasonline.com, 3 Dec. 2024 Vancouver had been a forceful captain at sea, maligning much of his crew through his ill temper and liberal use of corporal punishment. Corbin Reiff, Smithsonian Magazine, 15 Oct. 2024 When Trump was 13, his father found his collection of switchblades (bought after seeing West Side Story) and shipped him off to a military academy known for corporal punishment. EW.com, 3 Oct. 2024 Both children were subjected to strict corporal punishment, prosecutors said. Leonard Greene, New York Daily News, 4 Apr. 2024 See all Example Sentences for corporal punishment 

Dictionary Entries Near corporal punishment

Cite this Entry

“Corporal punishment.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/corporal%20punishment. Accessed 23 Dec. 2024.

Legal Definition

corporal punishment

noun
cor·​po·​ral punishment
ˈkȯr-pə-rəl-
: punishment inflicted on a person's body see also cruel and unusual punishment

Note: The prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment in the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution imposes limits on the use of corporal punishment on convicted offenders and prisoners. The U.S. Supreme Court has found the Eighth Amendment to be inapplicable to the use of corporal punishment on schoolchildren.

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