infect
to affect or contaminate (a person, organ, wound, etc.) with disease-producing germs.
to affect with disease.
to taint or contaminate with something that affects quality, character, or condition unfavorably: to infect the air with poison gas.
to corrupt or affect morally: The news of the gold strike infected him with greed.
to imbue with some pernicious belief, opinion, etc.
to affect with a computer virus.
to affect so as to influence feeling or action: His courage infected the others.
Law. to taint with illegality, or expose to penalty, forfeiture, etc.
to become infected.
Archaic. infected.
Origin of infect
1Other words for infect
Other words from infect
- in·fect·ant, adjective
- in·fect·ed·ness, noun
- in·fec·tor, in·fect·er, noun
- non·in·fect·ed, adjective
- non·in·fect·ing, adjective
- pre·in·fect, verb (used with object)
- re·in·fect, verb (used with object)
- un·in·fect·ed, adjective
Words that may be confused with infect
Words Nearby infect
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use infect in a sentence
The question of how the virus probably jumped from bats to infect humans has been a mystery since the start of the outbreak.
WHO team in Wuhan dismisses lab leak theory, continues hunt for intermediary coronavirus host | Gerry Shih | February 9, 2021 | Washington PostIf a nursing-home patient was infected at his home but died in a hospital, it wasn’t counted.
What to make of New York’s revised nursing-home coronavirus numbers | Philip Bump | February 9, 2021 | Washington PostPeople may continue to get infected with the virus, but the infections are not as severe.
How coronavirus variants may drive reinfection and shape vaccination efforts | Erin Garcia de Jesus | February 5, 2021 | Science NewsIt has infected more than 100 million others, and new variants threaten another surge in cases even as vaccines have begun to roll out.
Smallpox used to kill millions of people every year. Here’s how humans beat it. | Kelsey Piper | February 5, 2021 | VoxYou just don’t know if they’re infected, so, as difficult as that is, at least this time around, just lay low and cool it.
Super spreader Sunday? Experts worry Super Bowl could trigger coronavirus explosion | Brittany Shammas, Fenit Nirappil, Mark Maske | February 5, 2021 | Washington Post
While the bats are infected, they shed large quantities of virus that can infect other animals.
Ebola Reston, it seemed, could infect humans, but never became symptomatic.
Already Deadly in Africa, Could Ebola Hit America Next? | Scott Bixby | April 5, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTThey had to infect the perfectly adequate data with the totally improbable idea of a 400-year-old heirloom elk antler tool.
Incontrovertible Evidence Proves the First Americans Came From Asia | Doug Peacock | March 27, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTBut what I think is that this constant wound, that this constant sore, does infect all of our foreign policy.
Pro-Israel Group Attacks New York Times' Iran Correspondent | Ali Gharib | August 5, 2013 | THE DAILY BEASTHave you wondered how the U.S. managed to infect Iranian computers?
A very light attack of any of these diseases in one child may infect another fatally.
Essays In Pastoral Medicine | Austin MalleyOne child coming down with scarlet fever, measles, or whooping cough can infect twenty others at an afternoon party.
The Mother and Her Child | William S. SadlerSpores of parasitic fungi enter the cracks, germinate and infect the heartwood.
Our National Forests | Richard H. Douai BoerkerBecause the milk doth grow sour in the stomach, where evil humours are bred, and infect the breath.
The Works of Aristotle the Famous Philosopher | AnonymousIt was necessary to infect them in the mass so that as individuals they might infect others with the fever to buy bonds.
British Dictionary definitions for infect
/ (ɪnˈfɛkt) /
to cause infection in; contaminate (an organism, wound, etc) with pathogenic microorganisms
(also intr) to affect or become affected with a communicable disease
to taint, pollute, or contaminate
to affect, esp adversely, as if by contagion
computing to affect with a computer virus
mainly international law to taint with crime or illegality; expose to penalty or subject to forfeiture
archaic contaminated or polluted with or as if with a disease; infected
Origin of infect
1Derived forms of infect
- infector or infecter, noun
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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