Word for the Week: discipline

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Dis`ci`pline
n.
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.