afflict, chastise, discipline, punish, refine, subdue, castigate, correct, humble, purify, soften, try.
_Castigate_ and _chastise_ refer strictly to corporal punishment, tho both are somewhat archaic; _correct_ and _punish_ are often used as euphemisms in preference to either. _Punish_ is distinctly retributive in sense; _chastise_, partly retributive, and partly corrective; _chasten_, wholly corrective. _Chasten_ is used exclusively in the spiritual sense, and chiefly of the visitation of God.
"We are chastened _of_ the Lord," _1 Cor._ xi, 32; "they ... chastened us _after_ their own pleasure, but He _for_ our profit," _Heb._ xii, 10; "chasten _in_ thy hot displeasure," _Ps._ iv, 7; chasten _with_ pain; _by_ trials and sorrows.
cheer, encourage, harbor, nurse, shelter, cling to, entertain, hold dear, nurture, treasure, comfort, foster, nourish, protect, value.
To _cherish_ is both to _hold dear_ and to treat as dear. Mere unexpressed esteem would not be _cherishing_. In the marriage vow, "to love, honor, and _cherish_," the word _cherish_ implies all that each can do by love and tenderness for the welfare and happiness of the other, as by support, protection, care in sickness, comfort in sorrow, sympathy, and help of every kind. To _nurse_ is to tend the helpless or feeble, as infants, or the sick or wounded. To _nourish_ is strictly to sustain and build up by food; to _nurture_ includes careful mental and spiritual training, with something of love and tenderness; to _foster_ is simply to maintain and care for, to bring up; a _foster_-child will be _nourished_, but may not be as tenderly _nurtured_ or as lovingly _cherished_ as if one's own. In the figurative sense, the opinion one _cherishes_ he holds, not with mere cold conviction, but with loving devotion.
cull, elect, pick, pick out, prefer, select.
_Prefer_ indicates a state of desire and approval; _choose_, an act of will. Prudence or generosity may lead one to _choose_ what he does not _prefer_. _Select_ implies a careful consideration of the reasons for preference and choice. Among objects so nearly alike that we have no reason to _prefer_ any one to another we may simply _choose_ the nearest, but we could not be said to _select_ it. Aside from theology, _elect_ is popularly confined to the political sense; as, a free people _elect_ their own rulers. _Cull_, from the Latin _colligere_, commonly means to collect, as well as to _select_. In a garden we _cull_ the choicest flowers.