Correction

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Definition

1. The action of correcting or setting right; substitution of what is right for what is erroneous in (a book, etc.); amendment. Hence, loosely, pointing out or marking of errors (in order to their removal). correction of the press: i.e. of printers' errors.

b. phr. under correction: subject to correction; a formula expressing deference to superior information, or critical authority. So saving correction.

2. (with a and pl.) An act or instance of emendation; concr. that which is substituted for what is wrong or faulty, esp. in a literary work; an emendation.

3. The correcting (of a person) for faults of character or conduct; reprehension, rebuke, reproof. Obs.

4. The correcting (of a person) by disciplinary punishment; chastisement, properly with a view to amendment; but frequently in later use (now somewhat arch.) of corporal punishment, flogging.

b. An exercise of correcting discipline.

c. Correcting control. Obs.

d. house of correction: a building for the confinement and punishment of offenders, esp. with a view to their reformation; a bridewell.

6. The counteracting or neutralizing of the ill effect of (something hurtful or unpleasant).

7. a. Math. and Physics. The addition or subtraction of some quantity to or from the result of an observation or calculation, to bring it into accordance with certain standard conditions; the quantity so added or subtracted. correction of a fluent (in Fluxions): the determination of what is now called the constant of integration; the constant itself.

b. Optics. The counteraction of the aberration or dispersion of the rays in a lens or other optical instrument.

8. The condition of being corrected or correct (in style). Obs. rare. [A Gallicism.]

Correction, via the identical French from the Latin corrigĕre 'to make straight (again)', is an action to rectify, to make right a wrong.

To set straight an error, clarify a mis-understanding, undo resulting damage; e.g. a correction (newspaper) in a newspaper is the posting of the notice of a mistake that appeared in a past issue of a newspaper
To rectify an il-logical state, e.g. a market anomaly as in correction (stock market).
As a euphemism for punishment, of various kinds, mainly physical; in institutional terminology specifically used for imprisonment, e.g. correctional facility (prison) or corrections.
the various duties of a corrector, a political/administrative office in classical Antiquity and still an ecclesiastical one in the Catholic Church and one in the temple.