adjective
- causing or tending to cause pain, harm, or punishment
Usage: formal; rare
Examples
- The judge’s inflictive sentence served as a warning to others.
- She avoided inflictive criticism that might damage his confidence.
- The inflictive nature of the punishment was meant to deter future crimes.
- His inflictive words left lasting emotional scars.
- The therapy focused on reducing inflictive behaviors in the relationship.