From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Infection \In*fec"tion\, noun [Cf. F. infection, L. infectio a dyeing.]
1. The act or process of infecting.
There was a strict order against coming to those pits, and that was only to prevent infection. --De Foe.
2. That which infects, or causes the communicated disease; any effluvium, miasm, or pestilential matter by which an infectious disease is caused.
And that which was still worse, they that did thus break out spread the infection further by their wandering about with the distemper upon them. --De Foe.
3. The state of being infected; the condition of suffering from an infectious disease; contamination by morbific particles; the result of infecting influence; a prevailing disease; epidemic.
The danger was really very great, the infection being so very violent in London. --De Foe.
4. That which taints or corrupts morally; as, the infection of vicious principles.
It was her chance to light Amidst the gross infections of those times. --Daniel.
5. (Law) Contamination by illegality, as in cases of contraband goods; implication.
6. Sympathetic communication of like qualities or emotions; influence.
Through all her train the soft infection ran. --Pope.
Mankind are gay or serious by infection. --Rambler.
7. A localized area of tissue which is inflamed by growth of microorganisms; as, he has an infection in his finger. [PJC]
Syn: {Infection}, {Contagion}.
Usage: Infection is often used in a definite and limited sense of the transmission of affections without direct contact of individuals or immediate application or introduction of the morbific agent, in contradistinction to contagion, which then implies transmission by direct contact. --Quain. See {Contagious}.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
noun
1: the pathological state resulting from the invasion of the body by pathogenic microorganisms
2: (phonetics) the alteration of a speech sound under the influence of a neighboring sound
3: (medicine) the invasion of the body by pathogenic microorganisms and their multiplication which can lead to tissue damage and disease
4: an incident in which an infectious disease is transmitted [syn: {contagion}, {transmission}]
5: the communication of an attitude or emotional state among a number of people; "a contagion of mirth"; "the infection of his enthusiasm for poetry" [syn: {contagion}]
6: moral corruption or contamination; "ambitious men are led astray by an infection that is almost unavoidable"
7: (international law) illegality that taints or contaminates a ship or cargo rendering it liable to seizure
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
83 Moby Thesaurus words for "infection": abomination, adulteration, aerial infection, afflatus, airborne infection, animating spirit, animation, animus, atrocity, bad, bane, befouling, befoulment, besmirchment, blight, carrier, communicability, contagion, contagiousness, contamination, corruption, crying evil, cryptogenic infection, damage, defilement, despoliation, destruction, detriment, direct infection, dirtying, divine afflatus, droplet infection, dust infection, enlivenment, envenoming, epidemiology, evil, exhilaration, festering, fire, firing, fouling, genius, grievance, hand infection, harm, havoc, hurt, ill, indirect infection, infectiousness, infusion, injury, inspiration, mischief, misuse, moving spirit, outrage, perversion, phytogenic infection, poison, poisoning, pollution, primary infection, prostitution, pyogenic infection, ritual uncleanness, secondary infection, soiling, subclinical infection, suppuration, taint, the worst, toxin, vector, venom, vexation, virus, vitiation, waterborne infection, woe, wrong, zoogenic infection
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