The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Infliction \In*flic"tion\, n. [L. inflictio: cf. F. infliction.]
   1. The act of inflicting or imposing; as, the infliction of
      torment, or of punishment.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. That which is inflicted or imposed, as punishment,
      disgrace, calamity, etc.
      [1913 Webster]

            His severest inflictions are in themselves acts of
            justice and righteousness.            --Rogers.
      [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

infliction
    n 1: the act of imposing something (as a tax or an embargo)
         [syn: imposition, infliction]
    2: an act causing pain or damage
    3: something or someone that causes trouble; a source of
       unhappiness; "washing dishes was a nuisance before we got a
       dish washer"; "a bit of a bother"; "he's not a friend, he's
       an infliction" [syn: annoyance, bother, botheration,
       pain, infliction, pain in the neck, pain in the ass]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

90 Moby Thesaurus words for "infliction":
   affliction, bane, bitter cup, bitter draft, bitter draught,
   bitter pill, bother, bugbear, burden, burden of care, burdening,
   calamity, cankerworm of care, care, castigation, charging,
   chastening, chastisement, condign punishment, correction, cross,
   crown of thorns, crushing burden, curse, death, demand, deserts,
   destruction, disciplinary measures, discipline, disease, distress,
   encumbrance, evil, exaction, ferule, freighting, gall,
   gall and wormwood, grievance, harm, imposing an onus, imposition,
   inconsiderateness, inconvenience, judgment, judicial punishment,
   laying on, load, loading, loading down, nemesis, obtrusiveness,
   open wound, oppression, pack of troubles, pains,
   pains and punishments, pay, payment, peck of troubles,
   penal retribution, penalty, penology, pest, pestilence, plague,
   presumptuousness, punishment, punition, retribution,
   retributive justice, running sore, scourge, sea of troubles,
   sorrow, tasking, taxing, thorn, torment, trouble,
   unwarranted demand, vexation, visitation, waters of bitterness,
   weight, weighting, well-deserved punishment, what-for, woe