inflict

[ in-flikt ]

verb (used with object)

1. to impose as something that must be borne or suffered:

   to inflict punishment.

2. to impose (anything unwelcome):

   The regime inflicted burdensome taxes on the people.

3. to deal or deliver, as a blow.

inflict

/ ɪnˈflɪkt /

verb

1. often foll byon or upon to impose (something unwelcome, such as pain, oneself, etc)
2. rare.
   to cause to suffer; afflict (with)
3. to deal out (blows, lashes, etc)

Derived Forms

• inˈflictable, adjective
• inˈfliction, noun
• inˈflictive, adjective
• inˈflicter, noun

Other Words From

• in·flicta·ble adjective
• in·flicter in·flictor noun
• in·flictive adjective
• prein·flict verb (used with object)
• unin·flicted adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of inflict¹

First recorded in 1520–30; from Latin inflīctus, past participle of inflīgere “to strike or dash against,” equivalent to in- “in” + flīg- (stem of flīgere “to beat down”) + -tus past participle suffix; in- ²

Word History and Origins

Origin of inflict¹

C16: from Latin inflīgere to strike (something) against, dash against, from flīgere to strike

Example Sentences

The GRU has been tied to more than a decade of advanced hacking campaigns, including several that have inflicted serious damage to national security.

From Ars Technica

Wall Street has proven to be one of the biggest enemies of working people, but the Democratic Party’s 2020 platform mentions Wall Street only four times, with zero mention of the pain private equity firms like THL inflict on communities like mine.

From Fortune

Hong Kong activists say that Cellebrite’s tech is “used to inflict terrorism on the city’s residents and to attack demonstrators and pro-democracy activists.”

From MIT Technology Review

They all stood a good chance to recover from their self-inflicted SEO hangover, even to improve their organic search performance significantly beyond what was deemed their SERP ceiling in the past.

From Search Engine Land

It looks like she saw the harm such a policy was inflicting, and on her own, she fixed it.

From Washington Blade

The rise of ISIS has revealed the horrors that people are willing to inflict upon one another.

From The Daily Beast

These targets would be selected for the pain and difficulty they would inflict on the ISIS leadership.

From The Daily Beast

Most of all, how could anyone film—or inflict upon viewers—such gratuitous, relentlessly grubby sexual content?

From The Daily Beast

So cutting off the petro-Euros flowing back to Russia would inflict at least as much pain on Europe as it would on Russia.

From The Daily Beast

And with RT, these losers have a global platform through which they can inflict their psychoses on the rest of us.

From The Daily Beast

From that region they issue to inflict diseases, especially blindness and deafness.

From Project Gutenberg

Like his father, he had to bear all that Spanish envy and Spanish malignity could inflict.

From Project Gutenberg

Accordingly the Marshal was able to surprise and defeat Blake, and then to turn and inflict a similar defeat on Cuesta.

From Project Gutenberg

The ships fired upon each other, but they could not inflict serious damage.

From Project Gutenberg

You inflict a punishment which confers honour on the culprit in the eyes of the only persons for whose opinion he cares.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• exact
• expose
• levy
• wreak