CONTAGION • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Contagion

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/kəntˈeɪdʒən/ Listen

noun

Contagion n.

(Med.) The transmission of a disease from one person to another, by direct or indirect contact. Note: The term has been applied by some to the action of miasmata arising from dead animal or vegetable matter, bogs, fens, etc., but in this sense it is now abandoned. "And will he steal out of his wholesome bed To dare the vile contagion of the night?"

That which serves as a medium or agency to transmit disease; a virus produced by, or exhalation proceeding from, a diseased person, and capable of reproducing the disease.

The act or means of communicating any influence to the mind or heart; as, the contagion of enthusiasm. "The contagion of example." "When lust... Lets in defilement to the inward parts, The soul grows clotted by contagion."

Venom; poison. (Obs.) "I'll touch my point with this contagion."

Synonyms: See Infection.

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Etymology of 'Contagion'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Contagion" Quotes from Famous Books

... homes uninjured. The air seems to keep a sort of spiritual scent or trail of these old deeds, and to make them more real here than elsewhere. The old horrors of the Amphitheatre can be made real to any person of imaginative mind in the Colosseum. He has but to lend himself to the contagion of the place, and he will see the circle of ten thousand eager eyes thirsting for his blood, fill up the ruined benches and arched tiers as of yore, and hear the savage murmur of human voices, worse than the dull roar ...

— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 27, January, 1860 • Various

... people were all sick. The fever and ague were fairly a contagion. Other diseases were not uncommon. In August and September seventeen of our people died. During these months we had hardly a sufficient number of well people to attend to the sick. The most of my family were very sick. My little son, Heber John, the child of my ...

— The Mormon Menace - The Confessions of John Doyle Lee, Danite • John Doyle Lee

... so that a man of business often has all the air, the distraction and restlessness and hurry of feeling of a criminal. A knowledge of the world takes away the freedom and simplicity of thought as effectually as the contagion of its example. The artlessness and candour of our early years are open to all impressions alike, because the mind is not clogged and preoccupied with other objects. Our pleasures and our pains come single, make room for one another, and the spring ...

— Table-Talk - Essays on Men and Manners • William Hazlitt

... not only the palace-fronts that had put on a holiday dress. The contagion had spread to the poorer quarters, and in many a narrow street and crooked lane, where surely no part of the coming pageant might be expected to pass, the crazy balconies and unglazed windows were decked out with scraps of finery: a yard or two of velvet filched from the state hangings of some ...

— The Valley of Decision • Edith Wharton

... remained with the train by arrangement. It was his business to cheer, invigorate, and hearten for a great task, while his comrades roamed the forest and looked for the danger that they knew would surely come. Never did youth succeed better at his chosen task, as confidence spread from him like a contagion. ...

— The Forest Runners - A Story of the Great War Trail in Early Kentucky • Joseph A. Altsheler

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