as in imposes
to cause someone to accept or experience something unwanted
The criminal inflicted a lifetime of distress on his unsuspecting victims.
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Recent Examples of inflicts
But Venugopal points out that the lab study couldn’t capture the onslaught of enzymes, teeth gritting, and temperature variation that a real human mouth inflicts.
—
Zoë Schlanger, The Atlantic, 25 Aug. 2025
Corporate crime and wrongdoing—pollution, dangerous products, financial fraud and scams, unsafe workplaces, and more—inflicts far more damage on people than street crime, whether measured by dollars, injuries, or lives.
—Robert Weissman, MSNBC Newsweek, 12 Aug. 2025
Zoë Schlanger, The Atlantic, 25 Aug. 2025
Corporate crime and wrongdoing—pollution, dangerous products, financial fraud and scams, unsafe workplaces, and more—inflicts far more damage on people than street crime, whether measured by dollars, injuries, or lives.
—Robert Weissman, MSNBC Newsweek, 12 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for inflicts
Verb
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Guns rights advocates — including politically powerful groups such as the National Rifle Association and Gun Owners of America — vowed to fight any proposal that imposes a blanket gun ban targeting a segment of the population.—
Alanna Durkin Richer,
Chicago Tribune,
6 Sep. 2025
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At that wavelength, optics imposes a hard requirement.—
Kaif Shaikh,
Interesting Engineering,
3 Sep. 2025
Verb
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The company’s Enterprise Data Cloud creates a unified data storage system across Pure Storage arrays and includes modular non-disruptive upgrades that extend hardware life.—
Thomas Coughlin,
Forbes.com,
15 Sep. 2025
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In these homes, the conflict between budgeting and feeding kids well creates huge psychological stress for parents, which can lead to anxiety and depression, fueling the vicious cycle of stress and unhealthy eating, Beresin said.—
Yasmin Tayag,
The Atlantic,
14 Sep. 2025
Verb
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All of this brings us back to Bolt, whose prognostication has merit.—
Cory Mull,
Forbes.com,
12 Sep. 2025
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The new adaptive refresh rate brings the always-on display feature of the Pro iPhones to the standard iPhone for the first time.—
PC Magazine,
PC Magazine,
11 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Inflicts.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/inflicts. Accessed 16 Sep. 2025.
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