CONTAGIOUS • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Contagious

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/kəntˈeɪdʒəs/ Listen

adjective

Contagious adj.

1.

(Med.) Communicable by contact, by a virus, or by a bodily exhalation; catching; as, a contagious disease.

2.

Conveying or generating disease; pestilential; poisonous; as, contagious air.

3.

Spreading or communicable from one to another; exciting similar emotions or conduct in others. "His genius rendered his courage more contagious." "The spirit of imitation is contagious."

Synonyms: Contagious, Infectious. Although often used as synonyms, originally these words were used in very diverse senses; but, in general, a contagious disease has been considered as one which is caught from another by some near contact, by the breath, by bodily effluvia, etc.; while an infectious disease supposed some entirely different cause acting by a hidden influence, like the miasma of prison ships, of marshes, etc., infecting the system with disease. In either case, a pathogenic microorganism is the direct cause of the disease. This distinction, though not universally admitted by medical men, as to the literal meaning of the words, certainly applies to them in their figurative use. Thus we speak of the contagious influence of evil associates; their contagion of bad example, the contagion of fear, etc., when we refer to transmission by proximity or contact. On the other hand, we speak of infection by bad principles, etc., when we consider anything as diffused by some hidden influence.

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Etymology of 'Contagious'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Contagious" Quotes from Famous Books

... lieutenant's anxiety about the young officer of the White Hawk was growing more and more contagious, and the men gave a cheer as they span the boat along, every smart sailor on board thinking about the frank, straightforward lad who had so bravely gone on ...

— Cutlass and Cudgel • George Manville Fenn

... exact words of what was said after this, but I said that it seemed to me that most people were afraid not to know everything. Not knowing too much is a natural gift, and unless a man can make his ignorance contagious—inspire people with the books he dares not read—of course the only thing he can do is to give up and read everything, and belong to Society. He certainly cannot belong to himself unless he protects himself with well-selected, carefully guarded, daring ...

— The Lost Art of Reading • Gerald Stanley Lee

... produced a silent disapproval. As he said, if she didn't sniff, she looked as if she felt a cold coming on. She knew it herself and took great pains; but it coloured her tone, if not her words. Too often she was merely silent when he was very much himself. Silence is contagious: they passed a whole dinner ...

— Love and Lucy • Maurice Henry Hewlett

... had called a halt in her performances in the line of contagious diseases, for since the scarlet fever scare she had quit frightening the family into spasms, and at fifteen was as charming, healthy, and tantalizing a bit of girlhood as one could wish to see, though about as much of a ...

— A Dixie School Girl • Gabrielle E. Jackson

... the previous stories of the Boy Inventors, new and interesting triumphs of mechanism are produced which become immediately valuable, and the stage for their proving and testing is again the water. On the surface and below it, the boys have jolly, contagious fun, and the story of their serious, purposeful inventions challenge ...

— A Sweet Little Maid • Amy E. Blanchard

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