1. Word finder
  2. Word definitions
  3. virulent

Find the word definition

What is "virulent"

Crossword clues for virulent

virulent
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
virulent
adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a virulent poison (=one that makes someone very ill or kills them)
▪ Scorpions produce a virulent poison.
virulent (=causing many people to become ill)
▪ Why was this particular strain of the virus so virulent?
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
more
▪ Some plants have more virulent poisons.
▪ But now suppose the pathogen becomes the tiniest fraction more virulent: say the infectivity becomes one point zero one.
▪ The suspicion is that the process created a new strain, or strains, of more virulent disease.
most
▪ He tried to organise a debate, and invited the most virulent protesters to come on stage and put their case.
▪ These were a dozen or so stoppered glass bottles containing a selection of Wakelate's most virulent and inventive poisons.
▪ While companies talk about sustainable agriculture, they create plant varieties that can withstand being sprayed by their most virulent herbicides.
▪ Novick stops short of saying so, but it is among blacks that anti-semitism is most virulent.
particularly
▪ When Robert was twelve and I seven, both my parents and Ann were smitten by a particularly virulent flu germ.
▪ But particularly virulent forms of strep have come and gone throughout history.
▪ Alana was diagnosed April 5 with acute myeloid leukemia, type M-7, a particularly virulent form of cancer.
■ NOUN
form
▪ Restoring culture can just as easily lead to a new and virulent form of fundamentalism as to a revival of cultural diversity.
▪ But particularly virulent forms of strep have come and gone throughout history.
▪ He had developed a vaccine using virulent forms of polio that were then killed with formaldehyde and injected.
▪ Alana was diagnosed April 5 with acute myeloid leukemia, type M-7, a particularly virulent form of cancer.
strain
▪ A virulent strain of the disease malignant catarrhal fever is on the increase.
▪ They were scared by the virulent strains of virus Salk insisted on using in his vaccine.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ a virulent critic of the United Nations
▪ a more virulent strain of HIV
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ He had developed a vaccine using virulent forms of polio that were then killed with formaldehyde and injected.
▪ He tried to organise a debate, and invited the most virulent protesters to come on stage and put their case.
▪ Occasionally, a virus is created with a combination of genes that makes it especially virulent.
▪ That lofty notion spread like a virulent germ into every law school in the nation.
▪ The least resistant hosts and the least virulent parasites were killed in each generation.
▪ When Robert was twelve and I seven, both my parents and Ann were smitten by a particularly virulent flu germ.
▪ While companies talk about sustainable agriculture, they create plant varieties that can withstand being sprayed by their most virulent herbicides.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Virulent

Virulent \Vir"u*lent\, a. [L. virulentus, fr. virus poison: cf. F. virulent. See Virus.]

  1. Extremely poisonous or venomous; very active in doing injury.

    A contagious disorder rendered more virulent by uncleanness.
    --Sir W. Scott.

  2. Very bitter in enmity; actuated by a desire to injure; malignant; as, a virulent invective.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
virulent

c.1400, in reference to wounds, ulcers, etc., "full of corrupt or poisonous matter," from Latin virulentus "poisonous," from virus "poison" (see virus). Figurative sense of "violent, spiteful" is attested from c.1600. Related: Virulently.

Wiktionary
virulent

a. 1 (context chiefly medicine of a disease or disease-causing agent English) Highly infectious, malignant(,) or deadly. 2 hostile to the point of being venomous; intensely acrimonious.

WordNet
virulent

  1. adj. extremely poisonous or injurious; producing venom; "venomous snakes"; "a virulent insect bite" [syn: deadly, venomous]

  2. infectious; having the ability to cause disease [ant: avirulent]

  3. harsh or corrosive in tone; "an acerbic tone piercing otherwise flowery prose"; "a barrage of acid comments"; "her acrid remarks make her many enemies"; "bitter words"; "blistering criticism"; "caustic jokes about political assassination, talk-show hosts and medical ethics"; "a sulfurous denunciation" [syn: acerb, acerbic, acid, acrid, bitter, blistering, caustic, sulfurous, sulphurous, venomous, vitriolic]

Usage examples of "virulent".

Yurgy hated to touch that wood, which he believed very old and which, though well-polished, was overscored with a multitude of leprous-looking patches, more virulent than any mold designed by nature.

At all events he kept his anti-war opinions to himself and, except that his hatred for the captain was more virulent than ever since the affair of the postmastership, he found little fault with the war preparations in the village, the organizing of a Home Guard, the raising of funds for a new flag and flagpole and the recruiting meeting in the town hall.

It was a psychosomatic instrument designed to induce all the physical symptoms of a selected number of virulent poisons.

A virulent strain of staphylococcus aureus has incorporated endozine-resistant plasmids from enterococcus.

Fresh fuel was continually thrown in by obscure authors of pamphlets and newspapers, who stigmatized and insulted with such virulent perseverance, that no one would have imagined they were actuated by personal motives, not retained by mercenary booksellers, against that unfortunate nobleman.

According to Williams, all of the children conceived at the original Chrysalis had been expressly endowed with a genetic immunity to all forms of streptococcus, including this particularly virulent strain, but Dhasal did not intend to accept that premise as a given until tested.

Pasteur stumbling on this chance protection of a couple of miserable chickens, saw at once a new way of guarding living things against virulent germs, of saving men from death.

Was Koja wise to let a virulent and jealous enemy lurk unslain in the midst of his people, to whisper and conspire against him?

It will cure virulent syphilis and gonorrhoea -- and the two dozen or more other venereal diseases Cathy says humans give each other but have yet to discover -- in less than a day.

In spite of his virulent anti-clericalism, Goya contrived to remain on sufficiently good terms with the Church to receive periodical commissions to paint religious pictures.

Eldridge, formerly of Hakodate, obtained a small quantity of the poison, and, after trying some experiments with it, came to the conclusion that it is less virulent than other poisons employed for a like purpose, as by the natives of Java, the Bushmen, and certain tribes of the Amazon and Orinoco.

Now a virulent new hantavirus has emerged, which has begun to lay waste to the peace-loving tribe.

He collided with the firewood hovel, a hitching rack, and a water trough, and cursed in dark conclusion that mountain villages were an uncivilized place to suffer the virulent effects of brewed hops.

Also, he looked upon him as a compatriot in distress, and a great bond of union between them was their mutual and virulent hatred of England and the English, which in the case of Monsieur Leblanc, who in his youth had fought at Waterloo and been acquainted with the great Emperor, was not altogether unnatural.

The Lolo, like the Chung Miao, use a virulent poison on their barbs, you know.