quarantine

quarantine [kwawr-uh n-teen, kwor-, kwawr-uh n-teen, kwor-] ExamplesWord Origin See more synonyms for quarantine on Thesaurus.com noun

1. a strict isolation imposed to prevent the spread of disease.
2. a period, originally 40 days, of detention or isolation imposed upon ships, persons, animals, or plants on arrival at a port or place, when suspected of carrying some infectious or contagious disease.
3. a system of measures maintained by governmental authority at ports, frontiers, etc., for preventing the spread of disease.
4. the branch of the governmental service concerned with such measures.
5. a place or station at which such measures are carried out, as a special port or dock where ships are detained.
6. the detention or isolation enforced.
7. the place, especially a hospital, where people are detained.
8. a period of 40 days.
9. social, political, or economic isolation imposed as a punishment, as in ostracizing an individual or enforcing sanctions against a foreign state.

verb (used with object), quar·an·tined, quar·an·tin·ing.

10. to put in or subject to quarantine.
11. to exclude, detain, or isolate for political, social, or hygienic reasons.

Origin of quarantine 1600–10; Italian quarantina, variant of quarantena, orig. Upper Italian (Venetian): period of forty days, group of forty, derivative of quaranta forty ≪ Latin quadrāgintā Related formsquar·an·tin·a·ble, adjectivequar·an·tin·er, nounpre·quar·an·tine, noun, verb (used with object), pre·quar·an·tined, pre·quar·an·tin·ing.un·quar·an·tined, adjective Related Words for quarantine detention, sequester, separation, seclusion, segregation, sequestration, lazaretto, segregate, confine, separate, seclude, insulate, remove, restrict, detach, cordon Examples from the Web for quarantine Contemporary Examples of quarantine

AIDS insanity:  When running for the US Senate in 1992, Huckabee called for a quarantine of people who had AIDS.

The Devil in Mike Huckabee

Dean Obeidallah

January 6, 2015

Adding an extra three weeks of quarantine on to every trip makes it hard to fit this coverage into our lives.

The Photojournalist Who Stared Down Ebola

Abby Haglage

November 8, 2014

The quarantine had either failed by then, or did shortly after.

Fighting Ebola and Starvation in Sierra Leone

Abby Haglage

November 5, 2014

But the quarantine, lifted just 10 days in, was a colossal failure.

Meet the Liberian Girls Beating Ebola

Abby Haglage

October 29, 2014

Entire towns or neighborhoods could not be targeted for quarantine, Hodge said.

Are Mandatory Ebola Quarantines Legal?

Tim Mak

October 28, 2014

Historical Examples of quarantine

The ship only got to the quarantine ground that day, but in the morning we went to sea.

Ned Myers

James Fenimore Cooper

I left the Plato at the quarantine ground, going to the Sailor’s Retreat.

Ned Myers

James Fenimore Cooper

Could you persuade them to let us remain in ‘Quarantine,’ then, for a few days?

The Knight Of Gwynne, Vol. II (of II)

Charles James Lever

But that is impossible, unless you have broken through the quarantine.

The Memoires of Casanova, Complete

Jacques Casanova de Seingalt

For me, I’m sick of havin’ folks act like we was a quarantine station.

Shorty McCabe

Sewell Ford

British Dictionary definitions for quarantine quarantine noun

1. a period of isolation or detention, esp of persons or animals arriving from abroad, to prevent the spread of disease, usually consisting of the maximum known incubation period of the suspected disease
2. the place or area where such detention is enforced
3. any period or state of enforced isolation

verb (tr)

4. to isolate in or as if in quarantine
5. Australian to withhold (a portion of a welfare payment) from a person or group of people

Word Origin for quarantine C17: from Italian quarantina period of forty days, from quaranta forty, from Latin quadrāgintā Word Origin and History for quarantine n.

1520s, “period of 40 days in which a widow has the right to remain in her dead husband’s house.” Earlier quarentyne (15c.), “desert in which Christ fasted for 40 days,” from Latin quadraginta “forty,” related to quattuor “four” (see four).

Sense of “period a ship suspected of carrying disease is kept in isolation” is 1660s, from Italian quarantina giorni, literally “space of forty days,” from quaranta “forty,” from Latin quadraginta. So called from the Venetian custom of keeping ships from plague-stricken countries waiting off its port for 40 days (first enforced 1377) to assure that no latent cases were aboard. The extended sense of “any period of forced isolation” is from 1670s.

v.

1804, from quarantine (n.). Related: Quarantined; quarantining.

quarantine in Medicine quarantine [kwôr′ən-tēn′] n.

1. A period of time during which a vehicle, person, or material suspected of carrying a contagious disease is detained at a port of entry under enforced isolation to prevent disease from entering a country.
2. A place for such detention.
3. Enforced isolation or restriction of free movement imposed to prevent the spread of contagious disease.
4. A condition of enforced isolation.
5. A period of 40 days.

v.

1. To isolate in or as if in quarantine.

quarantine in Culture quarantine [(kwawr-uhn-teen, kwahr-uhn-teen)]

The isolation of people who either have a contagious disease or have been exposed to one, in an attempt to prevent the spread of the disease.

Note The term is sometimes used politically to designate the political and economic isolation of a nation in retribution for unacceptable policies: “When Iraq invaded Kuwait, it was placed in quarantine by the nations of the world.”