adj, verb ·Common ·High school level
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"Not everyone will be infected when an epidemic strikes."
"Her passion for dancing has infected me."
"And in the imitation of these twain, / Who, as Ulysses says, opinion crowns / With an imperial voice, many are infect."
"The virus can easily infect a healthy person."
To bring (the body or part of it) into contact with a substance that causes illness (a pathogen), so that the pathogen begins to act on the body; (of a pathogen) to come into contact with (a body or body part) and begin to act on it.
Common synonyms include: abuse, activate, adulterate, affect, afflict, aggravate.
The virus can easily infect a healthy person.
Pronounced /ɪnˈfɛkt/.
From Middle French infect, from Latin infectus, perfect passive participle of inficiō (“dye, taint”).
Borrowed from Latin īnfectus, equivalent to in- (“not”) + factus, perfect passive participle of faciō (“to do, make”).