infectverb [ T ]
uk/ɪnˈfekt/us/ɪnˈfekt/infect verb [ T ] (DISEASE)
C1 to pass a disease to a person, animal, or plant:
The ward was full of children infected with TB.
All the tomato plants are infected with a virus.
C2 If a place, wound, or substance is infected, it contains bacteria or other things that can cause disease:
The meat had been infected by E coli bacteria.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Passing on illness & causing disease
- carrier
- carry
- catch
- contagious
- epidemic
- harbour
- incubate
- infected
- infest
- insalubrious
- mediastinum
- non-communicable
- prophylactic
- transmission
- transmit
- unhygienic
- vector
- verminous
- virulence
- virulent
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infect verb [ T ] (FEELING)
to make someone have the same feeling or emotion as you:
Her optimism seemed to infect all those around her.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Feelings - general words
- aura
- charged
- emotional
- emotionalism
- feeling
- free-floating
- himself
- in your heart of hearts idiom
- myself
- ripple
- sentient
- sentiment
- sentimental
- sentimentalism
- soul
- stab
- tinge
- tingle
- trip
- twinge
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infect verb [ T ] (COMPUTERS)
C1 to pass harmful programs from one computer to another, or within files in the same computer:
A computer virus may lurk unseen in a computer's memory, calling up and infecting each of the machine's data files in turn.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Computer programming & software
- abandonware
- ad-blocker
- ad-blocking
- adware
- alpha
- analytics
- CD-RW
- compile
- killer app
- lisp
- LMS
- low-level language
- macro
- mashup
- MS-DOS
- patch
- procedure
- shortcut
- systems analyst
- worm
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