Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Contagion

Con·ta′gion (-tā′jŭn), n. [L. contagio: cf. F. contagion. See Contact.] 1. (Med.) The transmission of a disease from one person to another, by direct or indirect contact.

☞ The term has been applied by some to the action of miasmata arising from dead animal or vegetable matter, bogs, fens, etc., but in this sense it is now abandoned. Dunglison.

And will he steal out of his wholesome bed To dare the vile contagion of the night? Shak.

2. That which serves as a medium or agency to transmit disease; a virus produced by, or exhalation proceeding from, a diseased person, and capable of reproducing the disease.

3. The act or means of communicating any influence to the mind or heart; as, the contagion of enthusiasm. "The contagion of example." Eikon Basilike.

When lust . . . Lets in defilement to the inward parts, The soul grows clotted by contagion. Milton.

4. Venom; poison. [Obs.] "I'll touch my point with this contagion." Shak.

Syn. — See Infection.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.