Dis`ci*pline (?), n. [F.
discipline, L. disciplina, from discipulus. See
Disciple.] 1. The treatment suited to a
disciple or learner; education; development of the faculties by
instruction and exercise; training, whether physical, mental, or
moral.
Wife and children are a kind of discipline of
humanity.
Bacon.
Discipline aims at the removal of bad habits
and the substitution of good ones, especially those of order,
regularity, and obedience.
C. J. Smith.
2. Training to act in accordance with
established rules; accustoming to systematic and regular action;
drill.
Their wildness lose, and, quitting nature's part,
Obey the rules and discipline of art.
Dryden.
3. Subjection to rule; submissiveness to
order and control; habit of obedience.
The most perfect, who have their passions in the best
discipline, are yet obliged to be constantly on their
guard.
Rogers.
4. Severe training, corrective of faults;
instruction by means of misfortune, suffering, punishment,
etc.
A sharp discipline of half a century had
sufficed to educate us.
Macaulay.
5. Correction; chastisement; punishment
inflicted by way of correction and training.
Giving her the discipline of the
strap.
Addison.
6. The subject matter of instruction; a
branch of knowledge. Bp. Wilkins.
7. (Eccl.) The enforcement of methods
of correction against one guilty of ecclesiastical offenses;
reformatory or penal action toward a church member.
8. (R. C. Ch.) Self-inflicted and
voluntary corporal punishment, as penance, or otherwise;
specifically, a penitential scourge.
9. (Eccl.) A system of essential rules
and duties; as, the Romish or Anglican discipline.
Syn. -- Education; instruction; training; culture;
correction; chastisement; punishment.
Dis"ci*pline (?), v. t. [imp. &
p. p. Disciplined (?); p. pr. & vb.
n. Disciplining.] [Cf. LL. disciplinarian to
flog, fr. L. disciplina discipline, and F. discipliner
to discipline.] 1. To educate; to develop by
instruction and exercise; to train.
2. To accustom to regular and systematic
action; to bring under control so as to act systematically; to train
to act together under orders; to teach subordination to; to form a
habit of obedience in; to drill.
Ill armed, and worse disciplined.
Clarendon.
His mind . . . imperfectly disciplined by
nature.
Macaulay.
3. To improve by corrective and penal
methods; to chastise; to correct.
Has he disciplined Aufidius
soundly?
Shak.
4. To inflict ecclesiastical censures and
penalties upon.
Syn. -- To train; form; teach; instruct; bring up;
regulate; correct; chasten; chastise; punish.
