quarantine
n. · v.-
1 a place of isolation (n.) C1 Advanced Formal Medicinethe actual building or area where people are kept while they are being checked for disease.
a physical location, such as a lazaret or dedicated facility, where isolation is strictly enforced.
ExampleThe sailors were moved to a quarantine on the edge of the harbour for two weeks.
ExampleUpon arrival, the crew was immediately escorted to the port's quarantine to ensure no foreign pathogens entered the local population.
- lazaret
- isolation ward
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2 digital isolation (n.) B2 Upper Intermediate Technical Computinga safe area on a computer where a virus or dangerous file is kept so it cannot hurt the rest of the system.
the isolation of a file, program, or network segment to prevent a detected threat from compromising the broader system.
ExampleMy antivirus software moved the suspicious file into quarantine.
ExampleThe system administrator placed the infected workstation in a digital quarantine to prevent the ransomware from spreading across the corporate server.
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3 to isolate someone (v.) B2 Upper Intermediateto put someone or something into a separate place to stop a disease from spreading.
to impose a period of isolation on a person, animal, or object to prevent the spread of infection.
ExampleThe government had to quarantine everyone who had been on the flight.
ExampleHealth officials decided to quarantine the entire apartment complex after three residents tested positive for the highly infectious strain.
- isolate
- segregate
- seclude
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4 to stay in isolation (v.) B2 Upper Intermediateto stay away from other people by choice or by law during an outbreak.
to enter or remain in a state of isolation, often used intransitively to describe self-imposed measures.
ExampleIf you feel sick, you should quarantine at home for at least five days.
ExampleDuring the peak of the epidemic, many citizens chose to quarantine voluntarily to protect vulnerable members of their families.
- self isolate
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5 historical 40-day period (n.) C2 Proficiency Archaic Lawa period of exactly forty days, originally used for religious or legal reasons.
a period of forty days, historically referring to the duration of a widow's right to remain in her husband's house or a period of penance.
ExampleIn the old days, a widow was granted a quarantine of forty days in her late husband's home.
ExampleThe term originates from the Italian 'quaranta', referring to the forty-day quarantine period imposed on ships during the Black Death.
The word traces its path from Latin quadrāgintā ("four tens, 40") through a series of linguistic contortions. Medieval Latin quarentena and quarentīna ("40-day period, Lent") appear to have formed via a proposed Late Latin construction quaranta + -ēna, a distributive adjective pattern. By Middle English, the term had arrived as quarentine, and via Norman quarenteine and French quarenteine, it entered English. Italian quarantina preserves the same root, its etymological spine intact from quadrāgintā to quaranta.
In French political usage, the term’s meaning shifted from a religious observance to a legal measure. The calque quarantaine emerged after Louis IX’s edicts, applying the 40-day concept to political exclusions. This usage resurfaced in 1937 when Roosevelt’s administration invoked the term to describe its severance of relations with the Axis powers. A decade later, in 1962, Kennedy’s administration applied the same terminology to the Cuban missile crisis, lending the word a second life in diplomatic parlance.
The term’s journey from Lent to Latin America survived without altering its numerical core. Quarantena remained tied to 40, whether days, years, or political standoffs. The Axis and Cuba found themselves in the same grammatical boat as Lent and quadrāgintā — all bound to the same unchanging number.