Link Centre Dictionary

infect

in·fect

UK/ˈɪnfɛkt/ US/ˌɪˈnfɛkt/ uncommon obsolete rare

verb

1.

communicate a disease to

  • “Your children have infected you with this head cold”
2.

contaminate with a disease or microorganism

Synonyms
Antonyms
3.

contaminate with ideas or an ideology

  • “society was infected by racism”
4.

affect in a contagious way

  • “His laughter infects everyone who is in the same room”

Origin

Borrowed from Latin īnfectus, equivalent to in- (“not”) + factus, perfect passive participle of faciō (“to do, make”).

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.