These words refer to acts taken by someone in authority to restrain or rectify the behaviour of someone in his charge. Discipline in this context suggests remedial measures, harsh or mild, that are taken to cause an improvement in conduct; they are usually imposed in the form of precise regulations to govern misbehaviour: strictly discipline sound almost euphemistic by comparison. Correct refers specifically to the pointing out of error; this, of course, can be done as a help, but in this context it suggests some sort of imposed remedial measure: correcting his tardiness by making him stay after class. Both discipline and correct seem to imply that an obedience to imposed rules alone will "improve" behaviour. Punish is considerably more honest in its frankness, at least, by referring directly to the imposing of a penalty for undesirable performance: punishing her daughter by denying her a week’s allowance; arguing that prisons should rehabilitate rather than punish lawbreakers.

Chasten is extremely formal but may range in suggestion from actual physical mistreatment to the imposing of any pain or affliction that leaves someone humble or tractable: the chastening of his careless ways by her withdrawn and bitter mood. It might particularly suggest the administering of harsh verbal reproaches: choosing a formal meeting of the board to chasten the office manager for his ill-advised policies. Chastise would now strike most ears as an outdated euphemism for physically punishing an inferior: a cane on the desk with which to chastise unruly students.

Castigate suggests, as does one aspect of chasten , a caustically severe verbal reprimand: castigating the secretaries for their sloppy job of filing; The inspector was castigated for having failed to check the electrical wiring as he was supposed to.