Quranic root
عذب
ʿ · dh · b
A heterogeneous root with several established lexical branches: sweetness and agreeableness, abstention or restraint, painful punishment, and extremity or appendage.
The lexical sources explicitly caution that the branches do not reduce to one fully regular principle. Punishment is variously related to beating, painful infliction, deprivation, or restraint, while other branches concern sweet water, abstention, exposure, and ends or appendages.
- Maqāyīs · row 3162
- Mufradāt · row 957
- 5
- Quran-attested forms
- 6
- Quran senses
- 373
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
عَذَّبَ
ʿadhdhaba
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form II
- Form
- II
- Quran occurrences
- 41 occurrences
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
To punish, chastise, or torment; to inflict painful punitive treatment.
The Quran uses the verb for punitive suffering, including contexts where the scope or manner of punishment is specified. In particular contexts, the punishment is interpreted as not being extermination or punishment by the sword; these are contextual specifications of the punitive action, not separate lexical meanings.
- Lane · entry 2494
- Mufradāt · row 957
Selected Quran examples
Quran 27:21word 1
“I will surely punish him”
Quran 20:47word 11
“torment them”
عَذَاب
ʿadhāb
- Part of speech
- Noun
- Quran occurrences
- 322 occurrences
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
Punishment, chastisement, or severe painful torment.
It denotes punitive suffering, whether described as punishment, torment, or a painful infliction. The Quranic contexts may specify its agent, object, severity, duration, or manner; such variations do not create separate lexical senses.
- Lane · entry 2507
- Mufradāt · row 957
Selected Quran examples
Quran 2:49word 8
“torment”
Quran 23:76word 3
“with the punishment”
A severe affliction or deprivation, including hunger or famine in an explicitly Quran-focused interpretation.
This specialized interpretation is attached to a Quran citation in the lexical evidence, but its historical citation notation is not converted here into a modern verse location because no independently secure matching QAC occurrence is supplied.
- Lane · entry 2507
عَذْب
ʿadhb
- Part of speech
- Adjective
- Quran occurrences
- 2 occurrences
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
Sweet, fresh, palatable, and agreeable to drink or swallow.
Used chiefly of water and, by lexical extension, of a beverage or food that is pleasant in taste or easy to consume.
- Lane · entry 2499
- Mufradāt · row 957
Selected Quran examples
Quran 25:53word 6
“palatable”
Quran 35:12word 5
“(is) fresh”
مُعَذَّب
muʿadhdhab
- Part of speech
- Passive participle
- Quran occurrences
- 4 occurrences
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
Punished or subjected to painful punishment.
The form is the passive participle of Form II and may function adjectivally or substantivally for those undergoing punishment.
- Lane · entry 2494
- Mufradāt · row 957
Selected Quran examples
Quran 26:138word 3
“(are) the ones to be punished”
Quran 37:59word 6
“will be punished”
مُعَذِّب
muʿadhdhib
- Part of speech
- Active participle
- Quran occurrences
- 4 occurrences
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
One who punishes or inflicts punishment.
The form is the active participle of Form II and can be used substantivally for an agent or group that carries out punishment.
- Lane · entry 2494
- Mufradāt · row 957
Selected Quran examples
Quran 8:33word 10
“the One Who punishes them”
Quran 17:15word 18
“are to punish”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
- 2:7عَذَابٌ(is) a punishment
- 2:10عَذَابٌ(is) a punishment
- 2:49ٱلْعَذَابِtorment
- 2:85ٱلْعَذَابِ ۗpunishment
- 2:86ٱلْعَذَابُthe punishment
Broader Classical Arabic meanings
Recorded for this root in the Classical lexicons beyond its Quran usage. These are secondary to the Quran senses above.
Show 37 Classical meanings
عَذُبَ
To become sweet, or easy and agreeable to drink or swallow.
Said chiefly of water, and apparently also of wine, another beverage, or food.
- Lane · entry 2493
عَذِبَ
To be covered with floating debris, particles, or green aquatic growth.
A disputed and weakly attested verb usage said of water; retained as a reported lexical branch rather than treated as a secure Quranic meaning.
- Lane · entry 2493
عَذَّبَ
To mull, heat, or boil wine or another insensate thing by placing it near fire.
A metaphorical use of the punishment verb applied to a beverage or other thing without sensation.
- Lane · entry 2494
عَذَّبَ
To attach a thong or hanging appendage to a whip.
A specialized construction concerning the whip and its attached strap or thong.
- Lane · entry 2494
أَعْذَبَ
To come to have sweet water.
Said of a people or party whose water has become sweet or drinkable.
- Lane · entry 2495
أَعْذَبَ
To abstain, desist, leave, or relinquish something; especially to abstain from eating because of intense thirst.
The construction may be followed by عن. The abstaining subject may be a person or an animal.
- Lane · entry 2495
أَعْذَبَ
To prevent, restrain, withhold, or forbid someone from an affair.
Typically construed with عن and used for holding oneself or another back from an action.
- Lane · entry 2495
أَعْذَبَ
To remove floating particles, aquatic growth, or similar matter from water, a watering-trough, or a tank.
The object is water or a water container from which impurities or green growth are removed.
- Lane · entry 2495
اِعْتَذَبَ
To make the two ends of a turban hang down behind.
A specialized clothing construction referring to the two hanging ends of the turban.
- Lane · entry 2496
اِسْتَعْذَبَ
To deem or esteem water sweet.
The construction expresses judging water to possess a sweet or agreeable quality.
- Lane · entry 2497
اِسْتَعْذَبَ
To seek, obtain, draw, drink, or bring sweet water.
The construction may describe seeking water for a household, drawing it from a well, drinking it, or bringing it to someone.
- Lane · entry 2497
اِعْذَوْذَبَ
To become sweet or very sweet.
Said of water; the form expresses an intensified or developed sweetness.
- Lane · entry 2498
عَذَبٌ، عَذِبٌ
Floating motes, rubbish, algae, or other green growth upon water; water abounding in such matter.
The noun and related adjective describe debris-covered or aquatic-growth-covered water, including water with both particles and green growth.
- Lane · entry 2500
- Lane · entry 2501
عَذَبٌ
What comes forth from the womb immediately after a fetus.
An anatomical or obstetrical technical use.
- Lane · entry 2500
عَذْبٌ، عَذَبٌ
A kind of shrub or tree, and a branch of a tree.
The sources use related forms for the tree itself and for one of its branches.
- Lane · entry 2499
- Lane · entry 2500
عَذَبٌ
A piece or strip of cloth held by women while wailing for the dead.
A specialized mourning implement; the lexical evidence explicitly associates it with women’s wailing.
- Lane · entry 2500
عَذَبَةٌ
An end, tip, strip, strap, thong, or hanging appendage: including the end of a whip, the tip of the tongue or a camel’s penis, a sandal strap, a saddle flap, a hanging turban piece, or a strip bound to a spear.
The broad lexical branch concerns an extremity or hanging attachment; particular applications include straps and thongs, the extremities of objects, and pieces of cloth or skin that hang down.
- Lane · entry 2500
عَذَبَةٌ
The cord or string by which a balance or pair of scales is raised.
A technical term for the lifting cord of a balance.
- Lane · entry 2500
عَذِبٌ
A person abiding in places of dried-up herbage or in a waterless desert.
A synonymic adjectival use describing a human being settled in an arid, vegetation-poor place.
- Lane · entry 2501
عَذْبَةٌ
A certain tree that kills camels if they eat it.
A botanical and toxicological specialization.
- Lane · entry 2502
عَذْبَةٌ
A well-known medicine.
A technical nominal use; the source records textual uncertainty between “medicine” and “disease” in some copies, with medicine being the supported reading here.
- Lane · entry 2502
عَذَبَاتٌ
The legs of a she-camel.
A plural specialized use distinct from the ordinary singular meanings of the related forms.
- Lane · entry 2503
عَذِبَةٌ
The inferior material removed from food grain and thrown away.
A term for the waste or worst portion separated from wheat or grain.
- Lane · entry 2504
عَذِبَةٌ
Pasturage or herbage.
Used in expressions describing water with or without surrounding pasture or vegetation.
- Lane · entry 2504
عَذِبَةٌ
The ridge of earth surrounding a cultivated plot to retain irrigation water.
A corrected technical interpretation of the term in an agricultural context.
- Lane · entry 2504
عَذَبِيٌّ
Generous or noble in natural disposition.
An adjectival use with variant vocalization and spelling reported in the lexical tradition.
- Lane · entry 2505
عَذَابُ عِذَبِينَ
An imprecation wishing that an unremitting punishment befall someone, or that their punishment not be remitted.
A fixed idiomatic expression rather than an ordinary statement about punishment.
- Lane · entry 2506
عَذَاب
A difficult, distressing, afflicting, or troublesome affair; hardship or torment by extension.
This is the broader Classical extension of the punishment noun, illustrated by expressions for travel or another burdensome event; it is kept separate from the Quranic punishment sense.
- Lane · entry 2507
عَذَابَةٌ
The womb.
An anatomical noun with a distinct lexical form.
- Lane · entry 2509
عَاذِبٌ، عَذُوبٌ
An animal that stands still or stops from fatigue and will not eat or drink, especially because of intense thirst.
Applied especially to a horse, camel, ass, or similar animal; it can also describe passing a night without eating or drinking.
- Lane · entry 2510
عَاذِبٌ، عَذُوبٌ
Unsheltered or exposed, with no covering between the subject and the sky.
A descriptive use for a person or animal spending the night in the open.
- Lane · entry 2510
الأَعْذَبَانِ
The “two sweetest things”: saliva and wine, or, in another usage, food and sexual intercourse.
A fixed idiomatic expression whose referents vary within the reported lexical tradition.
- Lane · entry 2511
مُعْذِبٌ
A bridle that restrains a horse from going away headlong.
A specialized equestrian use based on restraint.
- Lane · entry 2512
مُعَذَّبَةٌ
Wine mixed with water or other ingredients; also fresh ripe dates soaked in water.
A non-punitive culinary use of the derived form, describing something treated by mixing or soaking.
- Lane · entry 2514
مُعَذَّبٌ
A whip having a thong or hanging appendage attached to it.
A specialized object description distinct from the passive participle meaning “punished.”
- Lane · entry 2514
مَعْذَابُ الرِّيقِ
Pleasant and sweet to swallow, said of a woman’s saliva.
A conventional descriptive expression focused on the pleasant taste of saliva.
- Lane · entry 2515
عَذْبٌ
Sweet or agreeable in respect of the teeth; sweet or pleasant in speech or tongue.
Figurative applications of the sweetness term to teeth and to speech or the tongue, by comparison with sweet water. The teeth usage is illustrated with women but does not establish a gender restriction.
- Lane · entry 2499
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The root has several lexically independent branches; the root idea should not be treated as a single definition of every derived form.
The Lane citation for a Quranic interpretation of عذاب as hunger or famine is preserved without converting its historical citation notation into a modern verse location.
The disputed water-covered-with-debris verb usage is reported as a Classical branch but is marked as weakly attested in its usage conditions.