The DICT Development Group
3 definitions found
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :
Infectious \In*fec"tious\, a. [Cf. F. infectieux.]
1. Having qualities that may infect; communicable or caused
by infection; pestilential; epidemic; as, an infectious
fever; infectious clothing; infectious water; infectious
Where the infectious pestilence. --Shak.
2. Corrupting, or tending to corrupt or contaminate;
It [the court] is necessary for the polishing of
manners . . . but it is infectious even to the best
morals to live always in it. --Dryden.
3. (Law) Contaminating with illegality; exposing to seizure
Contraband articles are said to be of an infectious
4. Capable of being easily diffused or spread; sympathetic;
readily communicated; as, infectious mirth.
The laughter was so genuine as to be infectious.
Syn: See Contagious.
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) :
adj 1: caused by infection or capable of causing infection;
"viruses and other infective agents"; "a carrier remains
infective without himself showing signs of the disease"
[syn: infectious, infective]
2: easily spread; "fear is exceedingly infectious; children
catch it from their elders"- Bertrand Russell [ant:
3: of or relating to infection; "infectious hospital";
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 :
40 Moby Thesaurus words for "infectious":
catching, communicable, contagious, deadly, destructive, endemic,
envenomed, epidemial, epidemic, epiphytotic, epizootic, infective,
inoculable, irresistible, malign, malignant, mephitic, miasmal,
miasmatic, miasmic, noxious, pandemic, pestiferous, pestilent,
pestilential, poisonous, sporadic, spreading, sympathetic, taking,
toxic, toxicant, toxiferous, transmissible, venenate, veneniferous,
venenous, venomous, virulent, zymotic
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