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View synonyms for inflict

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)
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012


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Derived Forms

  • inˈfliction, noun
  • inˈflicter, noun
  • inˈflictive, adjective
  • inˈflictable, adjective
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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
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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
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Word History and Origins

Origin of inflict1

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

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.”

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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inflexibleinfliction