punish

1. Origins, structure, and basic meaning

• Structure: 懲 has 18 strokes, the on-reading ちょう, and the kun-readings こりる, こらす, and こらしめる. 懲りる (こりる) means to learn a lesson from an unpleasant experience or be put off.
• Basic usage: 懲りる concerns learning from or being put off by one's experience; 懲らしめる (こらしめる) concerns punishing someone else.

2. Common pitfalls and similar expressions

• Learning from experience and punishing someone
  • 前回の失敗に懲りて means having learned from the previous failure. 一度道に迷ったくらいでは山歩きに懲りない says that getting lost once is not enough to put someone off hiking.
  • 盗賊を懲らしめた means that the story's hero punished the thieves. 失敗した人を懲らしめるより introduces a preference for considering the cause together rather than punishing someone who made a mistake.