quarantine

B2 · Upper Intermediate Medicine

v. to keep a person or animal away from others so they do not spread a disease.

v. to impose isolation on a person, animal, or object to prevent the spread of infection; can be used transitively or intransitively.

“If you feel sick, you should quarantine at home to protect your coworkers.”

“The hospital staff moved quickly to quarantine the affected ward after three patients tested positive for the highly contagious strain.”

B2 · Upper Intermediate Uncountable noun Computing

n. a safe place on a computer where dangerous files are kept so they cannot cause harm.

n. the isolation of a file, program, or system to prevent a computer virus or malware from affecting other data.

“My antivirus software put the suspicious attachment into quarantine.”

“The system administrator placed the infected server in quarantine to prevent the ransomware from encrypting the rest of the corporate network.”

C2 · Proficiency Countable noun Archaic

n. a period of forty days, originally used for the time a ship had to wait before landing.

n. a period of forty days; historically referring to the duration a ship suspected of carrying plague was detained in port.

“In the past, a quarantine lasted exactly forty days to ensure no one on the ship was sick.”

“The term derives from the Italian 'quaranta giorni', referring to the forty-day quarantine enforced by the Venetian authorities during the Black Death.”