Discipline

n. [Lat. disciplina, contracted from disciplinula, from discipulus; Fr. discipline, Pr., Sp., Pg., & It. disciplina. See DISCIPLE.] 1. The treatment suited to a disciple or learner; education; development of the faculties by instruction and exercise; training. For he had charge my discipline to frame. Spencer. Wife and children are a kind of discipline of humanity. Bacon. 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; state of discipline. The most perfect, who have their passions in the best discipline. Rogers. 4. Severe training, corrective of faults; instruction by means of misfortune, suffering, punishment, &c. A sharp discipline of half a century had sufficed to educate us. Macaulay.

5. Correction; chastisement; punishment inflicted by way of correction and training.
6. (Eccl.) The enforcement of methods of correction against one guilty of ecclesiastical offenses; reformatory or penal action toward a church member.
7. The subject matter of instruction; branch of knowledge. Wilkins.

Syn. — Education; instruction; culture; correction; chastisement.