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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Infectious \In*fec"tious\, adjective [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 vices.
Where the infectious pestilence. --Shak.
2. Corrupting, or tending to corrupt or contaminate; vitiating; demoralizing.
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 and forfeiture.
Contraband articles are said to be of an infectious nature. --Kent.
4. Capable of being easily diffused or spread; sympathetic; readily communicated; as, infectious mirth.
The laughter was so genuine as to be infectious. --W. Black.
Syn: See {Contagious}.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
infectious
adjective
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: {infective}]
2: easily spread; "fear is exceedlingly infectious; children catch it from their elders"- Bertrand Russell [ant: {noninfectious}]
3: of or relating to infection; "infectious hospital"; "infectious disease"
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
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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Definitions retrieved from local copies of the freely distributed DICT client/server software and databases. Click here for database copyright information. - KM |