verb

• (transitive) To cause (a child, student, or someone else being looked after, or a suspect or criminal) to suffer for crime or misconduct, to administer disciplinary action, typically by an authority or a person in authority (for example: a parent, teacher, or police officer).
  "If a prince violates the law, then he must be punished like an ordinary person."
• (transitive, figuratively) To treat harshly and unfairly.
  "But each effort that Anna makes —and she has attempted many— meets with obstacles from a welfare bureaucracy that punishes single mothers for initiative and partial economic self-sufficiency."
• (transitive, colloquial) To handle or beat severely; to maul.
• (transitive, colloquial) To consume a large quantity of.
  "A few moments later, we were all sitting around the veranda of the hunters' dining hall, punishing the gin, as usual."