afflict

(redirected from afflicts)
Also found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus.

afflict (one) with (someone or something)

1. To cause one to contract an ailment or disease. A person's name or pronoun can appear before "with." My classroom has been almost empty all week because one kid afflicted the others with chicken pox. When you have a child in preschool, you'll be afflicted with every illness. It seems I've afflicted my husband with my cold.
2. To cause another person hardship or difficulty. When used in this sense, a noun or pronoun typically does not appear between "afflict" and "with." Once I finally recovered from my illness, I was afflicted with medical bills. You graduate from college, young and optimistic, and then you're promptly afflicted with student loan debt! Thanks so much for afflicting me with another massive filing project.
3. To force someone to spend time with an irritating person. A person's name or pronoun typically appears before "with." Please don't afflict me with your obnoxious brother this evening. How are we are going have any fun tonight if Mom afflicts us with Uncle Al? Keep moving, or else they'll afflict us with anyone they don't want to have to sit with.
See also: afflict

comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable

To provide aid or support to those in need, while prompting those in positions of power or luxury to act in more ethical ways. Adapted from the writing of humorist Finley Peter Dunne as the fictional character "Mr. Dooley." It is our professional duty as journalists to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable—by exposing the faults of the rich and powerful while acting as the voice of the impoverished and disenfranchised. I've always believed that the church should always strive to be comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable. After all, "A man’s riches may ransom his life, but a poor man hears no threat." When I ran for office, I vowed to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable, and, today, I put forth a bill to substantially increase taxes on the wealthy and lower those on the poor.
See also: afflict, and, comfort, comfortable
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2024 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.

afflict someone with someone

to burden someone with an annoying person. I was foolish enough to afflict myself with my young cousin for the weekend.
See also: afflict

afflict someone with something

 
1. Lit. to cause someone to suffer from a disease or disability. The virus has afflicted everyone in the valley.
2. Fig. to burden someone with trouble. We were afflicted with all the worry that comes with raising a teenager.
See also: afflict
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs. © 2002 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
See also:
References in periodicals archive ?
There is commonly held wrong belief that rheumatic diseases afflict only joints.
Debilitating and painful diseases
Beyond these generic dilemmas that attend any enterprise such as this, there are specific difficulties that afflict this particular enterprise.
Huck's Raft: A History of American Childhood
The Alzheimer's Association projects that by 2025 the disease will afflict approximately 6.5 million seniors--a 44 percent increase from the 4.5 million affected in 2000.
Murder in mind: increasing cases of dementia, changing populations contribute to rise in resident-to-resident violence in long term care facilities
Caused by a parasitic flatworm that spends part of its life in amphibious snails, the illness afflicts 200 million people worldwide.
Aerial war against disease: satellite tracking of epidemics is soaring
Alzheimer's disease afflicts Louis's wife, and he struggles in many of these poems (including "For You, These Flowers," which first appeared in The Progressive) with his feelings of anger, resentment, loneliness, and love.
Ceremonies of the Damned
Speaker Betty Boothroyd calls it ``Pre-Election Tension" - a painful condition that afflicts MPs as they prepare to face voters.
Come on lads ..it's time to calm down
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which is charged with administration of the Orphan Drug Act, provides orphan drug designation when the targeted disease afflicts 200,00 or fewer Americans and no satisfactory therapy exists to combat the disease.
Orphan Drug Act on congressional agenda
Now there is evidence of a new risk: a report in the August 2003 issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism suggests that the surface intensity of UV radiation may affect the clinical and immunologic expression of myositis, an autoimmune disease that causes chronic muscle inflammation and weakness and afflicts about 30,000 Americans.
UV intensity may affect autoimmune disorder
And I think of how in Lamentations there is this prophecy: "All you who pass, look and see; is any sorrow like the sorrow that afflicts me?" (Lamentations 2:13).
Along the Via Dolorosa. (A Lenten Meditation)
Allison conducted a series of autopsies in Chile in which he uncovered evidence of Chagas' disease, an incurable parasitic ailment that afflicts some 20 million people in Latin America today.
Paleopathological puzzles: researchers unearth ancient medical secrets
Gout is extremely painful and infrequently afflicts modern reptiles and birds, says Rothschild.
T.rex bested by Argentinean beast
Unlike weight loss drugs that work by decreasing appetite, a drug that stimulates the beta-3 receptor would get around a problem that afflicts many dieters: The body's metabolism adapts to the lower intake of calories, making it more difficult to lose weight.
Obesity drug takes a different strategy
In the United States, for instance, this source of wheezing and chronic breathing difficulties afflicts some 12 million people, an increase of roughly 60 percent in just a single decade.
Asthma research: a link to moving...
Schizophrenia, a severe mental disorder that afflicts about 1 in 100 people, usually emerges in late adolescence or young adulthood.
Childhood clues to schizophrenia
Yet this iron-overload disease afflicts about 1.5 million people in the United States.
Rusty origins: researchers identify the gene for iron-overload disease
Idioms browser ?
Full browser ?