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To make less burdensome or afflictive; to alleviate; as, to lighten the cares of life or the burden of grief.

In a small degree; slightly; not severely. At the first he lightly afflicted the land of Zebulun . . . and afterward did more grievously afflict her. Is. ix. 1.

Affliction; torment; torture. Chaucer.

Producing great evil and grief; causing dejection; calamitous; afflictive; as, a melancholy event.

rongly; to interpret erroneously. Do not, great sir, misconstrue his intent. Dryden. Much afflicted to find his actions misconstrued. Addison.

A wretched person; a person afflicted by any great misfortune. [Obs.] Spenser. The woeful words of a miser now despairing. Sir P. Sidney.

the state of being mitigated; abatement or diminution of anything painful, harsh, severe, afflictive, or calamitous; as, the mitigation of pain, grief, rigor, severity, punishment, or penalty.

To afflict; to distress. [Obs.] Which infinitely moans me. Beau. & Fl.

An infectious and fatal disease among cattle. Bacon. A murrain on you, may you be afflicted with a pestilent disease. Shak.

A state of affliction; adversity; as, a dreary night of sorrow.

One afflicted with nyctalopia.

To grieve or afflict to excess. [Obs.] Milton.

To put to bodily uneasiness or anguish; to afflict with uneasy sensations of any degree of intensity; to torment; to torture; as, his dinner or his wound pained him; his stomach pained him. Excess of cold, as well as heat, pains us. Lock

Full of pain; causing uneasiness or distress, either physical or mental; afflictive; disquieting; distressing Addison.

all diseases; a universal medicine; a cure-all; catholicon; hence, a relief or solace for affliction.

Having a pearly speck in the eye; afflicted with the cataract.

To pursue in a manner to injure, grieve, or afflict; to beset with cruelty or malignity; to harass; especially, to afflict, harass, punish, or put to death, for adherence to a particular religious creed or mode of worship. Do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you. M…

To inflict pain upon; to torment; to torture; to afflict. [Obs.] Chaucer. Shak. That people that pyned him to death. Piers Plowman. One is pined in prison, another tortured on the rack. Bp. Hall.

That which smites, wounds, or troubles; a blow; a calamity; any afflictive evil or torment; a great trail or vexation. Shak. And men blasphemed God for the plague of hail. Wyclif. The different plague of each calamity. Shak.

Afflicted with gout. Sir T. Browne.