Third person singular present tense of chastise; he, she, or it criticizes or scolds harshly.
From Old French 'chastier,' with the '-es' suffix added for third person singular present tense in English. The base word comes from Latin 'castigare' meaning to purify through punishment.
When we say someone 'chastises,' we're using a grammatical form that English needs to track who is doing the action in present time—a reminder that language evolves to help us communicate clearly about timing.
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