• IPA: /əˈflɪkt/

afflict (afflicts, present participle afflicting; past and past participle afflicted)

1. (transitive) To cause (someone) pain, suffering or distress.
   • 1611, Authorized King James translation of Exodus 1:11–12:

     Therefore they did set over them taskmasters to afflict them with their burdens. And they built for Pharaoh treasure cities, Pithom and Raamses. But the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew. And they were grieved because of the children of Israel.

   • 1611, Authorized King James translation of Leviticus 23:27:

     Also on the tenth day of this seventh month there shall be a day of atonement: it shall be an holy convocation unto you; and ye shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire unto the LORD.

2. (obsolete) To strike or cast down; to overthrow.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book 1”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […] [a]nd by Robert Boulter […] [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], OCLC 228722708 ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: The Text Exactly Reproduced from the First Edition of 1667: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554 ↗:

     reassembling our afflicted powers

3. (obsolete) To make low or humble.

   • Men are apt to prefer a prosperous error before an afflicted truth.

• affliction
• afflictive

• German: bekümmern
• Italian: affliggere
• Portuguese: afligir
• Russian: причиня́ть боль
• Spanish: afligir