- pronunciation:
- kwa
r
n
tin
[or]
kwa
r
n
tin
- parts of speech:
- noun, verb
- features:
- Word History, Word Explorer
part of speech: |
noun |
definition: |
the keeping of a person, animal, or thing away from others to stop a disease from spreading.
The child with chicken pox was put in quarantine.- synonyms:
- isolation
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part of speech: |
verb |
inflections: |
quarantines, quarantining, quarantined |
definition: |
to put a person or thing in quarantine.
The doctor quarantined the patients with influenza in a separate part of the hospital.- similar words:
- confine, segregate
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related words: |
isolate, separate |
derivation: |
quarantinable (adj.) |
Quarantine comes from the Italian word for "forty." In the early 1600s, "quarantine" was the forty days that a woman could remain in her husband's house after he died. In the late 1600s, a ship that was suspected of carrying disease was kept in the port for forty days. This period was also called "quarantine."