See Also: infect(medicine)
infect(1)(dictionary)
infect(2)(dictionary)
infect(dictionary)

planktonic (iou) and infect(2) (iou)


planktonic (iou)



planktonic adjective & noun. L19.
[from PLANKTON + -IC.]
A. adjective. Of, pertaining to, characteristic of, or found in plankton. L19.
b. noun. (A fossil of) a planktonic organism, esp. a foraminiferan. M20.

infect(2) (iou)



infect verb trans. LME.
[Latin infect- pa. ppl stem of inficere dip in, stain, taint, spoil, formed as IN-2 + facere put, do.]
Affect (a person, animal, or organ) with disease; introduce a disease-causing micro-organism into. LME.
P. Theroux Every cut became infected and had to be scrubbed with hot water. E. Feinstein The tuberculosis that infected, and finally killed, all of his children.
b. Affect (a computer) with a computer virus. L20.
Contaminate (air, water, etc.) with harmful organisms or noxious matter; make harmful to Health. LME.
Taint or contaminate with moral corruption; deprave; exert a bad influence upon. LME.
S. Johnson Indolence is..one of the vices from which those whom it infects are seldom reformed.
Affect injuriously or unpleasantly; spoil or corrupt with some addition; adulterate. LME-L17.
b. Infest, beset. M16-E18.
Affect or impregnate with a (freq. noxious) substance; taint. Formerly also, dye, colour, stain. L15.
E. K. Kane Our snow-water has been infected..by a very perceptible flavor and odor of musk.
Instil a (now only bad or harmful) belief or opinion into. L15.
J. Whyte Books..full of pestilent doctrines, blasphemy and heresy, to infect the people.
Affect (esp. a person) with some quality, esp. a feeling, communicate a feeling to (a person); (of a feeling) take hold of. L16.
N. Algren The very heat that enervates men infects women with restlessness.
b. Celtic Philology. Of a sound: affect and alter the quality of (a sound in a syllable) by proximity. L19.
Taint with crime; involve in crime. Now rare. L16.
b. Law (now Hist.). Involve (a ship or cargo) in the seizure to which contraband etc. is liable. M18.
? Senses 3-7 are now usually interpreted as fig. uses of sense 1.
infectible adjective able to be infected E17.
infecter noun E16-M18.
infector noun L16.