Infectious

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Infectious \In*fec"tious\, a. [Cf. F. infectieux.]
     [1913 Webster]
     1. Having qualities that may infect; communicable or caused
        by infection; pestilential; epidemic; as, an infectious
        fever; infectious clothing; infectious water; infectious
        vices.


        [1913 Webster]
  
              Where the infectious pestilence.      --Shak.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Corrupting, or tending to corrupt or contaminate;
        vitiating; demoralizing.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              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.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. (Law) Contaminating with illegality; exposing to seizure
        and forfeiture.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Contraband articles are said to be of an infectious
              nature.                               --Kent.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     4. Capable of being easily diffused or spread; sympathetic;
        readily communicated; as, infectious mirth.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              The laughter was so genuine as to be infectious.
                                                    --W. Black.
  
     Syn: See {Contagious}.
          [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  infectious
       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: {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