From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishmake an example of somebodymake an example of somebodyPUNISHto punish someone so that other people are afraid to do the same thing → example
Examples from the Corpus
make an example of somebody• If muggers can be deterred by punitive sentencing, then some of them must be made an example of.• Campbell believed he could strengthen his hand by making an example of a council member in order to demonstrate where power lay.• By making an example of Holy Trinity he could punish his Jesuit adversaries and demonstrate his orthodoxy in a single swoop.• He makes examples of a few to scare the rest.• Canine, on the other hand, was strongly in favor of making an example of Petersen.• He had to make an example of the old man's insubordination, and make others fear to follow in his footsteps.• But because of the publicity they had to make an example of Corey.• I think they wanted to make an example of me. 