Inflict
[ɪn'flɪkt]
Definition
(verb.) impose something unpleasant; 'The principal visited his rage on the students'.
Editor: Seth--From WordNet
Definition
(v. t.) To give, cause, or produce by striking, or as if by striking; to apply forcibly; to lay or impose; to send; to cause to bear, feel, or suffer; as, to inflict blows; to inflict a wound with a dagger; to inflict severe pain by ingratitude; to inflict punishment on an offender; to inflict the penalty of death on a criminal.
Checked by Laurie
Synonyms and Synonymous
v. a. Impose, lay on.
Typist: Martha
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Impose, put, lay_on
ANT:Remove, alleviate, suspend, spare
Inputed by Huntington
Definition
v.t. to lay on: to impose as punishment.—n. Inflic′tion act of inflicting or imposing: punishment applied.—adj. Inflict′ive tending or able to inflict.
Typed by Elinor
Examples
- IF YOU WOULD FORGIVE YOUR ENEMY, says the Malay proverb, FIRST INFLICT A HURT ON HIM; and Lily was experiencing the truth of the apothegm. Edith Wharton. The House of Mirth.
- To have imposed any derogatory work upon him, would have been to inflict a wanton insult on the feelings of a most respectable man. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- It is the same case with those penances, which men inflict on themselves for their past sins and failings. David Hume. A Treatise of Human Nature.
- Logan intrenched himself hastily, and by that means was enabled to resist all assaults and inflict a great deal of damage upon the enemy. Ulysses S. Grant. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant.
- Then why inflict it on yourself? Charles Dickens. Oliver Twist.
- George avoided him in public and in the regiment, and, as we see, did not like those sermons which his senior was disposed to inflict upon him. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- I am anxious to see a force assembled that may be able to inflict a heavy blow upon the enemy. Ulysses S. Grant. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant.
- My impression is that the shock inflicted on me completely suspended my thinking and feeling power. Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- If I inflicted this shock upon him to-morrow morning, how could the immediate change in him be accounted for? Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- Little as I know of the law, I am certain that it can protect a woman from such treatment as that ruffian has inflicted on you to-day. Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
- There was something horrible to Dorothea in the sensation which this unresponsive hardness inflicted on her. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- Here's your health, Sammy, and may you speedily vipe off the disgrace as you've inflicted on the family name. Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers.
- Waldman inflicted torture when he praised, with kindness and warmth, the astonishing progress I had made in the sciences. Mary Shelley. Frankenstein_Or_The Modern Prometheus.
- The historian says: Ruffians, hired by Fulbert, fell upon Abelard by night, and inflicted upon him a terrible and nameless mutilation. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
- Carroll, of Gibbon's division, moved at a double quick with his brigade and drove back the enemy, inflicting great loss. Ulysses S. Grant. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant.
- You may wonder, I went on, how the event of your daughter's death can have been made the means of inflicting injury on another person. Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
- But he saw her long gentle face puckering into tears, and felt ashamed of the useless pain he was inflicting. Edith Wharton. The Age of Innocence.
- Your daughter's death has been made the pretext for inflicting serious injury on a person who is very dear to me. Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
- As I had lunged I had turned so that his sword merely passed beneath the muscles, inflicting a painful but not dangerous wound. Edgar Rice Burroughs. A Princess of Mars.
- This he did with great vigor, inflicting heavy losses on the National side, but suffering much heavier on his own. Ulysses S. Grant. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant.
- How, moreover, can a young woman who has never been ignored measure the pang which this injury inflicts? Edith Wharton. The House of Mirth.
Typist: Mag