Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Infection

In·fec′tion (ĭn·fĕk′shŭn), n. [Cf. F. infection, L. infectio a dyeing.]

1. The act or process of infecting.

There was a strict order against coming to those pits, and that was only to prevent infection. De Foe.

2. That which infects, or causes the communicated disease; any effluvium, miasm, or pestilential matter by which an infectious disease is caused.

And that which was still worse, they that did thus break out spread the infection further by their wandering about with the distemper upon them. De Foe.

3. The state of being infected; contamination by morbific particles; the result of infecting influence; a prevailing disease; epidemic.

The danger was really very great, the infection being so very violent in London. De Foe.

4. That which taints or corrupts morally; as, the infection of vicious principles.

It was her chance to light Amidst the gross infections of those times. Daniel.

5. (Law) Contamination by illegality, as in cases of contraband goods; implication.

6. Sympathetic communication of like qualities or emotions; influence.

Through all her train the soft infection ran. Pope.

Mankind are gay or serious by infection. Rambler.

Syn. — Infection, Contagion. — Infection is often used in a definite and limited sense of the transmission of affections without direct contact of individuals or immediate application or introduction of the morbific agent, in contradistinction to contagion, which then implies transmission by direct contact. Quain. See Contagious.

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 “?”.