quarantine

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“
The call for a quarantine was a difficult one to make, because a blockade was technically an act of war, and needed caution to avoid a misunderstanding.

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Definitions (24)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (7)

  1. noun 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. noun A place for such detention.
  3. noun Enforced isolation or restriction of free movement imposed to prevent the spread of contagious disease.
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Examples (18)

  • The Venetian doge in 1348 had ordered that travellers from contaminated areas be kept in isolation for 40 days, hence quarantine, from the Italian word for 40. —  Galileo in Rome
  • Walking to Elizabeth's office, John couldn't decide whether having a secret alien pet that hadn't so much as glimpsed the inside of a quarantine was a better or worse secret than if Ronon had admitted to being secretly gay. —  Wraithbait
  • Experts have said the quarantine is an overreaction, as the threat of a global pandemic appears to be ebbing. —  IOL: News
  • I have incredibly trouble about them, for they arrived just as the quarantine was established. —  The Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford — Volume 1
  • Wish that you were here, but am told the quarantine is absolutely strict. —  Battling the Clouds or, For a Comrade's Honor
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Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Italian quarantina, from quaranta (giorni), forty (days), from Latin quadrāgintā; see kwetwer- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Formerly also quarantain, quarantaine, also carentane (Lent); = Dutch quarantaine, karanteine = German quarantäne = Swedish karantän = Danish karantäne (from F.) = Spanish cuarentena = Portuguese quarentena = Provencal quarantena, carantena, from Old French quarantaine, quarentaine, quarantine, French quarantaine = Turkish karantina, from Italian quarantina, quarentina, quarantana, quarentana, a number of forty, a period of forty days, especially such a period of forty days, more or less, for the detention and observation of foods and persons suspected of infection, from Middle Latin quarantena, quarentena (after Roman), a period of forty days, Lent, quarantine, also a measure of forty rods (see quarentene), from Latin quadraginta (later Italian quaranta = French quarante), forty, = English forty: see forty.
  2. from quarantine, n.
 

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/ˈkwɑrəntin/
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