quarantine

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. 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. n. A place for such detention.
3. n. Enforced isolation or restriction of free movement imposed to prevent the spread of contagious disease.
4. n. A condition of enforced isolation.
5. n. A period of 40 days.
6. v. To isolate in or as if in quarantine.
7. v. To isolate politically or economically.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. Aperiod of forty days. Specifically — The season of Lent.
2. n. A term, originally of forty days, but now of varying length according to the exigencies of the case, during which a ship arriving in port and known or suspected to be infected with a malignant contagious disease is obliged to for-bear all intercourse with the place where she arrives. The United States first adopted a quarantine law in February, 1799. This law required federal officers to assist in executing State or municipal quarantine regulations. On April 29th, 1878, a national quarantine law was enacted, authorizing the establishment in certain contingencies of national quarantines.
3. n. The enforced isolation of individuals and certain objects coming, whether by sea or by land, from a place where dangerous communicable disease is presumably or actually present, with a view to limiting the spread of the malady.
4. n. Hence, by extension: The isolation of any person suffering or convalescing from acute contagious disease.
5. n. The isolation of a dwelling or of a town or district in which a contagious disease exists.
6. n. A place or station where quarantine is enforced.
7. n. The restriction within limits awarded to naval cadets as a punishment.
8. To put under quarantine, in any sense of that word.
9. Figuratively, to isolate, as by authority.

Wiktionary

1. n. A desert in which Christ fasted for 40 days according to the Bible
2. n. A grace period of 40 days during which a widow has the right to remain in her dead husband's home, regardless of the inheritance
3. n. A sanitary measure to prevent the spread of a contagious plague by isolating those believed to be infected.
4. n. Such official detention of a ship at or off port due to suspicion that it may be carrying a contagious disease aboard.
5. n. A certain place for isolating persons suspected of suffering from a contagious disease.
6. n. A certain period of time during which a person is isolated to determine whether they've been infected with a contagious disease.
7. n. Any rigorous measure of isolation, regardless of the reason.
8. n. A record system kept by port health authorities in order to monitor and prevent the spread of contagious diseases.
9. n. A place where email messages or other files which are suspected of harboring a virus are stored.
10. v. To retain in obligatory isolation or separation, as a sanitary measure to prevent the spread of contagious disease.
11. v. To put in isolation as if by quarantine

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A space of forty days; -- used of Lent.
2. n. Specifically, the term, originally of forty days, during which a ship arriving in port, and suspected of being infected a malignant contagious disease, is obliged to forbear all intercourse with the shore; hence, such restraint or inhibition of intercourse; also, the place where infected or prohibited vessels are stationed.
3. n. The period of forty days during which the widow had the privilege of remaining in the mansion house of which her husband died seized.
4. v. To compel to remain at a distance, or in a given place, without intercourse, when suspected of having contagious disease; to put under, or in, quarantine.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. isolation to prevent the spread of infectious disease
2. n. enforced isolation of patients suffering from a contagious disease in order to prevent the spread of disease
3. v. place into enforced isolation, as for medical reasons