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to distress with mental or bodily pain; trouble greatly or grievously:
to be afflicted with arthritis.
Obsolete.

to overthrow; defeat.
to humble.

Contemporary Examples

He wanted to give a voice to the voiceless, comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable.
Obama Administration and Sotloff Family Battle Over Blame for Journalist’s Kidnapping Josh Rogin September 21, 2014

An entire town, for example, is afflicted with insomnia at one point in the novel.
James Patterson’s Bestselling Classics James Patterson April 27, 2009

A futuristic Goth musical, Repo is set in a time when the human race is afflicted by a plague of organ failures.
My Day With Paris Tom Tapp November 3, 2008

I know, because I myself am so afflicted, looking for relief of an unbearable urge.
All These Useless Doctors Kent Sepkowitz January 31, 2010

More commonly, afflicted women felt so bad day after day, week after week that death seemed preferable.
Hyperemesis Gravidarum: What’s Ailing Kate Middleton Kent Sepkowitz December 3, 2012

Historical Examples

They are welcome if they bring us death, that supreme solace of the afflicted.
The Trail-Hunter Gustave Aimard

And she remained all day beside the afflicted, but ever haughty, countess.
Fairy Fingers Anna Cora Mowatt Ritchie

After a consultation with Patsy, the doctor undertook to speak seriously to the unreasonably afflicted men.
The Search Party G. A. Birmingham

Not that they are confined to the workers entirely, but because the workers are most afflicted by them.
The Common Sense of Socialism John Spargo

Probably all of us are afflicted with a natural antipathy to certain kinds of temperament, but at least we need not humour it.
With God in the World Charles H. Brent

verb
(transitive) to cause suffering or unhappiness to; distress greatly
n.

“person or persons in constant suffering of body or mind,” 1650s, noun use of past participle adjective from afflict.
v.

late 14c., “to cast down,” from Old French aflicter, from Latin afflictare “to damage, harass, torment,” frequentative of affligere (past participle afflictus) “to dash down, overthrow,” from ad- “to” (see ad-) + fligere (past participle flictus) “to strike,” from PIE root *bhlig- “to strike” (cf. Greek phlibein “to press, crush,” Czech blizna “scar,” Welsh blif “catapult”). Transferred meaning of “trouble, distress,” is first recorded 1530s. Related: Afflicted; afflicting.