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quarantines - 2 dictionary results
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quar⋅an⋅tine

  [kwawr-uhn-teen, kwor-, kwawr-uhn-teen, kwor-] noun, verb, -tined, -tin⋅ing.
Use quarantines in a Sentence
–noun
1. a strict isolation imposed to prevent the spread of disease.
2. a period, originally 40 days, of detention or isolation imposed upon ships, persons, animals, or plants on arrival at a port or place, when suspected of carrying some infectious or contagious disease.
3. a system of measures maintained by governmental authority at ports, frontiers, etc., for preventing the spread of disease.
4. the branch of the governmental service concerned with such measures.
5. a place or station at which such measures are carried out, as a special port or dock where ships are detained.
6. the detention or isolation enforced.
7. the place, esp. a hospital, where people are detained.
8. a period of 40 days.
9. social, political, or economic isolation imposed as a punishment, as in ostracizing an individual or enforcing sanctions against a foreign state.
–verb (used with object)
10. to put in or subject to quarantine.
11. to exclude, detain, or isolate for political, social, or hygienic reasons.
Origin:
1600–10; < It quarantina, var. of quarantena, orig. Upper It (Venetian): period of forty days, group of forty, deriv. of quaranta forty ≪ L quadrāgintā

Related forms:
quar⋅an⋅tin⋅a⋅ble, adjective
quar⋅an⋅tin⋅er, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To quarantines
quar·an·tine   (kwôr'ən-tēn', kwŏr'-)   
n.  
    1. A period of time during which a vehicle, person, or material suspected of carrying a contagious disease is detained at a port of entry under enforced isolation to prevent disease from entering a country.
    2. A place for such detention.
  2. Enforced isolation or restriction of free movement imposed to prevent the spread of contagious disease.
  3. A condition of enforced isolation.
  4. A period of 40 days.
tr.v.   quar·an·tined, quar·an·tin·ing, quar·an·tines
  1. To isolate in or as if in quarantine.
  2. To isolate politically or economically.

[Italian quarantina, from quaranta (giorni), forty (days), from Latin quadrāgintā; see kwetwer- in Indo-European roots.]
quar'an·tin'a·ble adj.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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