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The Collaborative International Dictionary
Chastening

Chasten \Chas"ten\ (ch[=a]"s'n), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Chastened (-s'nd); p. pr. & vb. n. Chastening.] [OE. chastien, OF. Chastier, F. Ch?tier, fr. L. castigare to punish, chastise; castus pure + agere to lead, drive. See Chaste, Act, and cf. Castigate, Chastise.]

  1. To correct by punishment; to inflict pain upon the purpose of reclaiming; to discipline; as, to chasten a son with a rod.

    For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth.
    --Heb. xii. 6.

  2. To purify from errors or faults; to refine.

    They [classics] chasten and enlarge the mind, and excite to noble actions.
    --Layard.

    Syn: To chastise; punish; correct; discipline; castigate; afflict; subdue; purify.

    Usage: To Chasten, Punish, Chastise. To chasten is to subject to affliction or trouble, in order to produce a general change for the better in life or character. To punish is to inflict penalty for violation of law, disobedience to authority, or intentional wrongdoing. To chastise is to punish a particular offense, as with stripes, especially with the hope that suffering or disgrace may prevent a repetition of faults.

Wiktionary
chastening

n. The act by which somebody is chastened. vb. (present participle of chasten English)

WordNet
chastening

n. a rebuke for making a mistake [syn: correction, chastisement]

Usage examples of "chastening".

Priest as he was, it is possible that De Casson shared the young man's feeling, though chastening years had overcome impulses of youth.

Sorrow, in such natures as his, exasperates instead of chastening: they knew him well enough to recognize the danger.

Every day, therefore, of study and observation was now chastening Harold Van Berg and preparing him to build his future success on the solid ground of positive merit as compared with that of other and gifted artists.

It is a little doubtful whether the races lacking “in the elementary qualities of social efficiency” are expected to acquire them under the chastening hands of those races which, through “strength and energy of character, humanity, probity, and integrity, and a single-minded devotion to conceptions of duty,” are developing “the resources of the richest regions of the earth” over their heads, or whether this is the ultimate ideal.

Along a thousand imperceptible channels an ideal simplicity from Nature pours down into it, modifying the human passions, chastening, purifying, uplifting.

Those chastenings assume varied forms: sometimes they are external, sometimes internal, but whatever be their nature they are painful to flesh and blood.