What's the difference between inflict and wreak?

Inflict


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To give, cause, or produce by striking, or as if by striking; to apply forcibly; to lay or impose; to send; to cause to bear, feel, or suffer; as, to inflict blows; to inflict a wound with a dagger; to inflict severe pain by ingratitude; to inflict punishment on an offender; to inflict the penalty of death on a criminal.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The west Africa Ebola epidemic “Few global events match epidemics and pandemics in potential to disrupt human security and inflict loss of life and economic and social damage,” he said.
  • (2) Perhaps they can laugh it all off more easily, but only to the extent that the show doesn’t instill terror for how this country’s greatness will be inflicted on them next.
  • (3) If black people could only sort out these self-inflicted problems themselves, everything would be OK. After all, doesn't every business say it welcomes job applicants from all backgrounds?
  • (4) US presidential election 2016: the state of the Republican race as the year begins Read more So far, the former secretary of state seems to be recovering well from self-inflicted wounds that dogged the start of her second, and most concerted, attempt for the White House.
  • (5) The threshold of epileptic spiking varied inversely with the area of cortical damage inflicted by the electrode.
  • (6) The phrase “self-inflicted blow” was one he used repeatedly, along with the word “glib” – applied to his Vote Leave opponents.
  • (7) The attacker, who was named locally as Jaylen Fryberg, killed one girl on Friday and seriously wounded four people – including two of his cousins – before he died of what police said was a self-inflicted wound.
  • (8) Maltose-positive strains were only demonstrable in birds with wounds inflicted by cats.
  • (9) MPs have voted to abandon the controversial badger cull in England entirely, inflicting an embarrassing defeat on ministers who had already been forced to postpone the start of the killing until next summer.
  • (10) These cases were tested at 9 to 25 years of age, or 8 to 22 years after inflicting injuries.
  • (11) A less intrusive way to make a city smarter might be to give those who govern it a way to try out their decisions in virtual reality before inflicting them on live humans.
  • (12) The concentrating defect in the postobstructive kidney may be related, at least in part, to damage inflicted by medullary ischemia during obstruction.
  • (13) We're kicking off with Spain, where prime minister Mariano Rajoy has defiantly insisted that he would not accept a bailout which would force him to inflict further spending cuts or tax rises on the Spanish people Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy answers journalists questions during last night's interview on the national Spanish Public Television (TVE).
  • (14) All were inflicted with severe smoke inhalation injury and pulmonary was demonstrated.
  • (15) He pointed out that the eighth amendment of the US constitution “prohibits the unnecessary and wanton infliction of pain through torture, barbarous methods, or methods resulting in a lingering death”.
  • (16) "Use new satellite imagery to trace buildings, infrastructure, areas, natural features and other important visible features of the city of Ormoc," lists one requests, as well as "map the current state of Tacloban City area after Typhoon Haiyan inflicted heavy damage to buildings, infrastructure and areas".
  • (17) A belated acknowledgement of the damage inflicted by decades of stagnated earnings and inequality have meant pay levels have rightly climbed to prominence, in part spurred by Vermont senator Bernie Sanders who put fair pay at the heart of his campaign attempts to secure the Democratic nomination for president.
  • (18) From January 1989 through December 1990, 74 patients were admitted to our urban level I trauma center with injuries inflicted by baseball bats.
  • (19) The number of self-inflicted deaths occurring in prisons in England and Wales is currently at record levels.” A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “These are tragic cases, and our thoughts continue to be with the family and friends of Ian Brown and Daniel Dunkley.
  • (20) The finding that lymphocytes are not affected by the liposome encapsulated drug suggests that the observed loss of lymphocytes in vivo, after intravenous dichloromethylene diphosphonate liposome treatment, may be due to damage inflicted by lysosomal enzymes released from dying macrophages.

Wreak


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To reck; to care.
  • (v. t.) To revenge; to avenge.
  • (v. t.) To execute in vengeance or passion; to inflict; to hurl or drive; as, to wreak vengeance on an enemy.
  • (v. t.) Revenge; vengeance; furious passion; resentment.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Even digital news, which has wreaked havoc on all other news, finds the advertising revenues that support it dwindling (or failing to grow).
  • (2) Last month, for example, the Daily Telegraph's Peter Oborne bemoaned their "devastating" fate, in a piece worth quoting at reasonable length, if only to prove that the idea of an out-of-touch elite blithely wreaking havoc is not the preserve of hard-bitten lefties.
  • (3) It was a fairly valiant attempt from Manchester United , but as their players grew leggy from chasing shadows, they dropped deep and let Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery wreak their unique brand of havoc.
  • (4) Rajoy’s hope is that Sánchez’s failure in the upcoming investiture vote wreaks havoc inside the PSOE, potentially opening the door to a scenario that might favour him.
  • (5) Hardly any development funding for implementation has been disbursed.” 68 million children likely to die by 2030 from preventable causes, report says Read more Dr David Richmond, president of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said the series offered a “wake-up call to governments worldwide to make faster progress in reducing the number of stillbirths, which wreak untold damage on families, care givers and communities”.
  • (6) Six years later, as the cultural revolution wreaked havoc, young Xi was dispatched to the dusty, impoverished north-western province of Shaanxi to "learn from the masses".
  • (7) Chief executive John Walden said retailers have learned their lesson from last year’s Black Friday sales bonanza, which wreaked havoc on the high street and hit shops’ profits in the run-up to Christmas.
  • (8) Walk more Saño, who shot to fame in 2013 for breaking down in tears and fasting for two weeks at UN climate talks after typhoon Haiyan wreaked havoc in his country, is currently walking 1,500km from Rome to this year’s conference in Paris.
  • (9) These and other voters could also be attracted to the AfD by media reports that a strong showing for the party could wreak havoc with parliamentary arithmetic.
  • (10) But the US, Israel and other western spy agencies have also spent years slipping faulty parts into black market consignments of equipment heading to Iran – each designed to wreak havoc inside the delicate machinery requirement for enrichment.
  • (11) On the Apollo missions, lunar dust got everywhere – the crews inhaled it and got it in their eyes, and it wreaked mechanical havoc – and on Mars the dust is even more problematic, because it is highly oxidised, chemically reactive, electrically charged and windblown.
  • (12) It's also the product of the wider crisis of neoliberal capitalism that first erupted in the banking system five years ago and has since wreaked havoc on public finances, jobs, services and living standards throughout the western world.
  • (13) The tragedy is that there is a growing number of people in the Labour Party – perhaps even Ed Miliband – who believe that they can manipulate industrial unrest to wreak revenge for their electoral defeats.
  • (14) Accepting that a Greek default was now impossible to avoid, EU governments are hoping it will be brief and "selective", not triggering a "credit event" on the financial markets that could wreak havoc on the credit default swap markets, also in the US, and unleash contagion.
  • (15) The tobacco industry implies that the demise of tobacco consumption would wreak havoc with the economy.
  • (16) There wasn't some evil plan hatched behind closed doors to wreak socio-economic havoc.
  • (17) Photograph: Alderac Entertainment Group King of Tokyo Based on the public-domain dice game Yahtzee, King of Tokyo transforms players into giant monsters competing to wreak destruction on the Japanese capital.
  • (18) As temperatures warm,” he said, “things on higher elevations get warmer and things on lower elevations move up.” Bark beetles, once killed by cold winters, are now surviving and wreaking havoc with trees.
  • (19) The south-east of England is most at risk from these invaders which can prey on native British freshwater species, substantially alter the ecology of waterways and wreak economic damage by blocking water pipes, according to a new study by a University of Cambridge team.
  • (20) Rain and wind continued to wreak havoc across the UK this weekend, with south-west England and Wales battered by gusts of up to 71mph.