infect

Verb

Verb Forms: infected, infecting, infects

• To contaminate with disease-producing microorganisms; to affect with an emotion.
• communicate a disease to
  • "Your children have infected you with this head cold"
• contaminate with a disease or microorganism
• corrupt with ideas or an ideology
  • "society was infected by racism"
• affect in a contagious way
  • "His laughter infects everyone who is in the same room"
• 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.
• To contaminate (an object or substance) with a pathogen.
• To make somebody enthusiastic about one's own passion, or to communicate a feeling to others, or a feeling communicating itself to others.

Adj

• Infected.
• Representing an action not yet completed.

Examples

• A winning streak can INFECT an entire Scrabble tournament with excitement.
• Her passion for dancing has infected me.
• Not everyone will be infected when an epidemic strikes.

Synonyms

taint, leper

Antonyms

disinfect

Related Words

infectious