Definition of "corporal punishment" [corporal punishment]

• A form of punishment achieved by inflicting blows to the offender's body. (noun)

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• "ADULTERY is always punished with cropping, which is the only corporal punishment amongst them, and death or out-lawry for murder, and infamy for less crimes, as fornication, theft, &c. which produces such repeated marks and reflections of ridicule and contempt, that generally ends in voluntary banishment; and these renegadoes and vagabonds are generally the ruffians who commit depredations and murders on the frontiers."
• "I do not know if sodomy is a hanging offence in the United States Army, or merely cause for corporal punishment and dishonourable discharge, but once they had seen each other on the street, in similar circumstances, neither was in doubt."
• "Transgression of this law is to involve deposition for bishops and clerics, excommunication and expulsion for monks, loss of office and dignity for officials, fines for richer laymen, corporal punishment and permanent exile for the poorer."