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What is "inflict"

Crossword clues for inflict

inflict
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
inflict
verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
cause/inflict casualties
▪ The rebels have inflicted heavy casualties.
inflict a defeat on sb (=defeat someone, especially easily)
▪ The army inflicted a heavy defeat on the English.
inflict a punishment (on sb) (=punish someone, especially physically)
▪ The abbot could inflict corporal punishment for gross disobedience.
inflict a wound
▪ These fish can inflict serious wounds.
inflict an injury on sbformal (= make someone have an injury)
▪ Jenkins was accused of inflicting a head injury on one of his former colleagues.
inflict hardship on sb (=make someone be in a difficult or painful situation, used for emphasis)
▪ Civil war has inflicted hardship and suffering on thousands of people.
inflict harm (=cause harm, especially physical harm)
▪ None of us wants to inflict harm on another human being.
inflict pain
▪ The guards enjoyed inflicting pain on them.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
casualty
▪ So successful was the tactic that the return fire from the Dragoons passed over their heads without inflicting a single casualty.
▪ The precise reasoning behind the apparent intent to inflict fatalities and casualties among the civilian population in Britain is far from clear.
damage
▪ However, it is possible for other war engines and large monsters to inflict damage on them.
▪ The law increased the penalties for those convicted of inflicting racially motivated damage on a religious building.
▪ Those with a taste for battle choose their weapons and most of them look capable of inflicting real damage.
▪ The articles are designed to inflict damage on Labour, but I doubt that they will.
▪ He's in a position to inflict major damage, and he does.
▪ Against an immobile target, such as a wall, even the early cannon could inflict quite considerable damage.
▪ But Tory rebels still remain confident they can win the day and in doing so inflict irreparable damage on the treaty.
▪ Most horses panic, and then they can inflict terrible damage upon themselves.
defeat
▪ Tranmere Rovers went nap in front of their biggest gate of the season to inflict a heavy defeat on promotion chasing West Ham.
▪ You are going to inflict such a defeat on the enemy that he will never recover.
harm
▪ Stripped of his power to inflict harm on me, he seemed terribly ordinary.
▪ Whatever their number, with the technology available to them, they can inflict major harm.
▪ He was charged with unlawfully and maliciously inflicting grievous bodily harm and with assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
▪ Thus, the government has no compelling justification for inflicting such harm.
▪ Claire and Wynn were also charged with conspiracy to inflict grievous bodily harm on Cotter.
▪ Women, it would seem, should be governed by some biological instinct that prevents them from inflicting harm.
▪ In court Diaz admitted charges of inflicting grievous bodily harm and affray and Walker admitted affray and assault causing actual bodily harm.
injury
▪ Detectives are linking it with a series of recent armed robberies, and warn the men could inflict serious injury.
▪ The second group comprises patients who inflict serious injuries on themselves with considerable suicidal intent.
▪ The accused's intention had to be considered to determine whether he wished to use it to inflict injury.
▪ Ask your glass merchant to rub down the newly-cut edges as plate glass can inflict nasty injuries.
▪ He is also an inveterate hater of Mrs Joe, whom he attacks secretly, inflicting injuries from which she eventually dies.
▪ She wondered crazily if she should thank Matilda for inflicting the injury.
▪ As for Mr Hussein's chemical weapons, they could still inflict horrible injuries on the allies if they are used.
▪ It means inflicting an injury which would be severely punished by a court of law if it was inflicted during an argument.
pain
▪ And he was carrying no thunder-and-fire stick to inflict pain on them.
▪ The threat to inflict pain may trigger fears more damaging than the immediate sensation of pain.
▪ She looked into his eyes, into their endless blackness, seeking silent reassurance that he would inflict no more pain.
▪ You are just lying there with these people washing, dressing and at the same time inflicting pain on you.
▪ He had to inflict pain on people he was told were enemies.
▪ Bougies were inserted into the urethra, and these got bigger and bigger, inflicting great pain and considerable nausea.
▪ We all think it wrong to inflict pain gratuitously, but our reason for obeying this principle is not that others do.
wound
▪ The hollow spur is connected to a venom gland situated behind the knee, and can inflict an agonising wound.
▪ This spine has a serrated edge and can inflict painful wounds.
▪ Even if they can't inflict any wounds they can still swamp him with weight of numbers.
▪ Robert said that his brother had shot him without warning from about ten feet, inflicting a serious thigh wound.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Inflict

Inflict \In*flict"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Inflicted; p. pr. & vb. n. Inflicting.] [L. inflictus, p. p. of infligere to strike on, to inflict; pref. in- in, on + fligere to strike. Cf. Flail.] 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.

What heart could wish, what hand inflict, this dire disgrace?
--Drygen.

The persecution and the pain That man inflicts on all inferior kinds.
--Cowper.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
inflict

1560s, from Latin inflictus, past participle of infligere "to strike or dash against," from in- "on, against" (see in- (2)) + fligere (past participle flictus) "to dash, strike" (see afflict). You inflict trouble on someone; you afflict someone with trouble. Shame on you.

Wiktionary
inflict

vb. To thrust upon; to impose.

Related phrases:
WordNet
inflict

v. impose something unpleasant; "The principal visited his rage on the students" [syn: bring down, visit, impose]

Wikipedia
Related phrases:

Usage examples of "inflict".

America, Adams warned, could face subjugation of the kind inflicted on Ireland.

Hunter, whom I should not have believed to have been very scrupulous about inflicting suffering upon animals, nevertheless censures Spallanzani for the unmeaning repetition of similar experiments.

We sincerely trust that this interview may be the means of putting an end to the unjustifiable brutalities too often inflicted on the lower animals under the guise of scientific experimentation.

In all veterinary schools, under such conditions, an incalculable amount of pain inflicted on animals becomes a part of the regular instruction of students.

So far, the Act facilitates the prosecution of science by competent persons, while it protects animals from the cruelty which might be inflicted by ignorant and unskilful hands.

The reasons for inflicting prolonged torment upon animals are wholly inadequate for its justification.

Even admitting that experiments on animals have contributed to the relief of human suffering, such measure of relief is infinitesimal compared with the pain which has been inflicted to secure it.

Cannot the public leave it solely to us to determine what pain may be inflicted upon animals, being certain that no more suffering will be caused than we deem to be necessary for success?

The Mahars had offered fabulous rewards for the capture of any one of us alive, and at the same time had threatened to inflict the direst punishment upon whomever should harm us.

A people accustomed to applaud the clemency of the conqueror, if the usual punishments of death, exile, and confiscation, were inflicted with any degree of temper and equity, beheld, with the most pleasing astonishment, a civil war, the flames of which were extinguished in the field of battle.

If, on the other hand, we recollect the universal toleration of Polytheism, as it was invariably maintained by the faith of the people, the incredulity of philosophers, and the policy of the Roman senate and emperors, we are at a loss to discover what new offence the Christians had committed, what new provocation could exasperate the mild indifference of antiquity, and what new motives could urge the Roman princes, who beheld without concern a thousand forms of religion subsisting in peace under their gentle sway, to inflict a severe punishment on any part of their subjects, who had chosen for themselves a singular but an inoffensive mode of faith and worship.

In a bizarre perversion of Beltane where the fertile body was worshiped and enhanced, these creatures inflicted selfmutilation with split switches, small knives, and burning coals.

And she would not inflict such a terrible load on her dearest friend Blackie, she had said.

However, we know these things: the blackmailer is ingenious, someone who is getting pleasure out of the pain and mental suffering that is being inflicted, and who is afraid of the slightest hint that might tie him into this whole affair.

They have new systems for locating our boats and are inflicting heavy losses on us, fifteen to seventeen U-boats a month.