quarantine

[kwawr-uh n-teen, kwor-, kwawr-uh n-teen, kwor-] /ˈkwɔr ənˌtin, ˈkwɒr-, ˌkwɔr ənˈtin, ˌkwɒr-/
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), quarantined, quarantining.
10.
to put in or subject to quarantine.
11.
to exclude, detain, or isolate for political, social, or hygienic reasons.
Origin
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 forms
quarantinable, adjective
quarantiner, noun
prequarantine, noun, verb (used with object), prequarantined, prequarantining.
unquarantined, adjective
Examples from the web for quarantine
  • quarantine and isolation seem to have snuffed out the flames for now.
  • Isolation and quarantine are public health practices used to stop or limit the spread of disease.
  • People potentially exposed to the virus are asked to quarantine themselves for 10 days to reduce the spread of the disease.
  • Some aid workers recalled that rescue dogs brought in after the 1995 Kobe earthquake were put in quarantine for two weeks.
  • Right now, influenza management starts with quarantine.
  • Currently, imported reptiles are never tested or placed in quarantine.
  • Many students say they almost enjoy the quarantine.
  • The animals are now in disease quarantine just outside Yellowstone.
  • Any animal imported into Britain must go through a six-month quarantine.
  • They are being held for six months in quarantine.
British Dictionary definitions for quarantine

quarantine

/ˈkwɒrənˌtiːn/
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 (transitive)
4.
to isolate in or as if in quarantine
5.
(Austral) to withhold (a portion of a welfare payment) from a person or group of people
Word Origin
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 quar·an·tine (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. quar·an·tined, quar·an·tin·ing, quar·an·tines
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.”