To Affli'ct. v.a. [afflicto, afflictum, Lat.]

1. To put to pain; to grieve; to torment.

   In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, ye shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all, whether it be one of your own country, or a stranger that sojourneth among you. Leviticus, xvi. 29.

   Give not over thy mind to heaviness, and afflict not thyself in thine own counsel. Ecclus, xxx. 21.

   For a father afflicted with untimely mourning, when he hath made an image of his child soon taken away, now honoured him as a God, which was then a dead man, and delivered to those that were under him, ceremonies and sacrifices. Wisdom.

   It teacheth us, how God thought fit to plague and afflict them, it doth not appoint in what form and manner we ought to punish the sin of idolatry in others. Hooker, b. v. § 17.

   O coward conscience! how dost thou afflict me?
   The lights burn blue &emdash; Is it not dead midnight?
   Cold fearful drops stand on my trembling flesh. Shakesp. Richard III.

   A melancholy tear afflicts my eye,
   And my heart labours with a sudden sigh. Prior.

2. The passive to be afflicted, has often at before the causal noun.

   The mother was so afflicted at the loss of a fine boy, who was her only son, that she died for grief of it. Addison. Spect.