'Infectious' definitions:
Definition of 'infectious'
From: WordNet
adjective
Caused by infection or capable of causing infection; "viruses and other infective agents"; "a carrier remains infective without himself showing signs of the disease" [syn: infectious, infective]
adjective
Easily spread; "fear is exceedingly infectious; children catch it from their elders"- Bertrand Russell [ant: noninfectious]
adjective
Of or relating to infection; "infectious hospital"; "infectious disease"
Definition of 'Infectious'
From: GCIDE
- Infectious \In*fec"tious\, a. [Cf. F. infectieux.] [1913 Webster]
- 1. Having qualities that may infect; communicable or caused by infection; pestilential; epidemic; as, an infectious fever; infectious clothing; infectious water; infectious vices. [1913 Webster]
- Where the infectious pestilence. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
- 2. Corrupting, or tending to corrupt or contaminate; vitiating; demoralizing. [1913 Webster]
- It [the court] is necessary for the polishing of manners . . . but it is infectious even to the best morals to live always in it. --Dryden. [1913 Webster]
- 3. (Law) Contaminating with illegality; exposing to seizure and forfeiture. [1913 Webster]
- Contraband articles are said to be of an infectious nature. --Kent. [1913 Webster]
- 4. Capable of being easily diffused or spread; sympathetic; readily communicated; as, infectious mirth. [1913 Webster]
- The laughter was so genuine as to be infectious. --W. Black.
- Syn: See Contagious. [1913 Webster]
Synonyms of 'infectious'
From: Moby Thesaurus
- catching,
- communicable,
- contagious,
- deadly,
- destructive,
- endemic,
- envenomed,
- epidemial,
- epidemic,
- epiphytotic,
- epizootic,
- infective,
- inoculable,
- irresistible,
- malign,
- malignant,
- mephitic,
- miasmal,
- miasmatic,
- miasmic,
- noxious,
- pandemic,
- pestiferous,
- pestilent,
- pestilential,
- poisonous,
- sporadic,
- spreading,
- sympathetic,
- taking,
- toxic,
- toxicant,
- toxiferous,
- transmissible,
- venenate,
- veneniferous,
- venenous,
- venomous,
- virulent,
- zymotic