Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Infectious \In*fec"tious\, a. [Cf. F. infectieux.]
-
Having qualities that may infect; communicable or caused by infection; pestilential; epidemic; as, an infectious fever; infectious clothing; infectious water; infectious vices.
Where the infectious pestilence.
--Shak. -
Corrupting, or tending to corrupt or contaminate; vitiating; demoralizing.
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. -
(Law) Contaminating with illegality; exposing to seizure and forfeiture.
Contraband articles are said to be of an infectious nature.
--Kent. -
Capable of being easily diffused or spread; sympathetic; readily communicated; as, infectious mirth.
The laughter was so genuine as to be infectious.
--W. Black.Syn: See Contagious.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Wiktionary
a. 1 (context pathology of an illness English) transmit from one person to another, usually through the air breathed. 2 (context pathology of a person English) Able to infect others. 3 (context of feelings and behaviour English) Spreading quickly from one person to another. 4 (context informal English) memorable and invoking excitement or interest.
WordNet
adj. 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: infective]
easily spread; "fear is exceedlingly infectious; children catch it from their elders"- Bertrand Russell [ant: noninfectious]
of or relating to infection; "infectious hospital"; "infectious disease"
Wikipedia
Infectious is the fourth album of the third wave ska/ funk/ pop band Suburban Legends. It was released on July 29, 2007 at the House of Blues at Downtown Disney in Anaheim, California and is made available for sale at the band's website.
The album was revealed in early July via videos showing the recording process on the band's YouTube account. Later in the month, the album was officially announced and "All Around the World," "Win a Date," and "Infectious" debuted on the Suburban Legends MySpace page.
The songs "Bed of Roses" and "You Told Me That" were previously released on the band's Japan-only release, Dance Like Nobody's Watching: Tokyo Nights. In transitioning back to its original ska sound in the months leading up to its 2012 album, Day Job, the band began performing a ska punk version of "So Fine."
Usage examples of "infectious".
His ardour was infectious and Domini felt stirred by it to a sudden sense of the joy of life.
Two-thirds of all colds are infectious, and due, not to cold pure air, but to foul, stuffy air, with the crop of germs that such air is almost certain to contain.
As a heart and lung transplant surgeon who routinely gave my axi patients strong immunosuppressive medicines that made them more susceptible to infections, I, by necessity, became a specialist in infectious diseases.
The bizarre part was that the infectious particles are unique, consisting of only protein and containing no DNA or RNA, a proposition so scientifically heretical that the study of these particles and the diseases they produce had already generated Nobel Prizes for medicine in two different years.
The spread of infectious diseases, the intense coherence of a laser beam, the roiling motion of a turbulent fluid: All of these are governed by nonlinear equations.
In fact, a blind ophthalmologist is not much good to anyone, but it was up to him to inform the health authorities, to warn them of this situation which might turn into a national catastrophe, nothing more nor less, of a form of blindness hitherto unknown, with every appearance of being highly contagious, and which, to all appearances, manifested itself without the previous existence of earlier pathological symptoms of an inflammatory, infectious or degenerative nature, as he was able to verify in the blind man who had come to consult him in his surgery, or as had been confirmed in his own case, a touch of myopia, a slight astigmatism, all so mild that he had decided, in the meantime, not to use corrective lenses.
There were surgical cases, infectious diseases, ophthalmic, orthopaedic and medical cases, most of them beyond my abilities and capabilities.
Now what he had to do was to locate the polyneuritis germ in the sick chickens, and prove it was infectious by transferring it to those that were yet well, then work out an antitoxin, and so on.
Seven eighths at least of all chronic diseases are produced by the existence in the system of that infectious disorder known in the language of science by the appellation of PSORA, but to the less refined portion of the community by the name of ITCH.
He was not exactly handsome, but he had a perfect manner and an air of gaiety which seemed infectious, with a thorough knowledge of the laws of good society.
Centers for Disease Control, based in Atlanta, was the institution of last resort in cases of outbreaks of infectious disease.
Yet, three unrelated women had been exposed to the same infectious agent.
But after working the last two years for the World Health Organization as an infectious disease specialist, it was inevitable that thoughts of deadly viruses would instantly spring to mind.
As those words were written on his chart Amado Ortega was dying of bubonic plague in its wildly infectious pneumonic form.
I must in candor declare, that it is very probable the contagion was conveyed, in some instances, by myself, though I took every possible care to prevent such a thing from happening, the moment that I ascertained that the distemper was infectious.