Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To cleanse so as to destroy or prevent the growth of disease-carrying microorganisms.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To cleanse from infection; purify from contagious or infectious matter; destroy the germs of disease in.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To free from infectious or contagious matter; to destroy putrefaction; to purify; to make innocuous.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To sterilize by the use of cleaning agent such as bleach.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb destroy microorganisms or pathogens by cleansing

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle French desinfecter

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Examples

  • The reason for cleaning first when you wish to disinfect is to remove organic matter—blood, feces, or food, for example—that might inactivate bleach and certain other household disinfectants.

    HOME COMFORTS CHERYL MENDELSON 2005

  • The reason for cleaning first when you wish to disinfect is to remove organic matter—blood, feces, or food, for example—that might inactivate bleach and certain other household disinfectants.

    HOME COMFORTS CHERYL MENDELSON 2005

  • The reason for cleaning first when you wish to disinfect is to remove organic matter—blood, feces, or food, for example—that might inactivate bleach and certain other household disinfectants.

    HOME COMFORTS CHERYL MENDELSON 2005

  • The reason for cleaning first when you wish to disinfect is to remove organic matter—blood, feces, or food, for example—that might inactivate bleach and certain other household disinfectants.

    HOME COMFORTS CHERYL MENDELSON 2005

  • Anyway I can't find the evidence for gassing people in groups to 'disinfect' them.

    Another 'ultra-traditionalist' Catholic leader says stupid things about the Holocaust | RELIGION Blog | dallasnews.com 2009

  • Professor von Duhn told me that once when approaching an Italian village in search of inscriptions he was taken for the devil, being unluckily mounted on a black horse and dressed in black, and was met by a priest with a crucifix, who was at last persuaded to "disinfect" him with holy water as a condition of his being admitted to the village.

    The Religious Experience of the Roman People From the Earliest Times to the Age of Augustus W. Warde Fowler 1884

  • Hand sanitizer and Clorox wipes were used to "disinfect" the bloody wounds.

    OpEdNews 2010

  • The customer benefits because they no longer have to "disinfect" the cart handle.

    MMD Newswire: Press Release News Wire 2009

  • The customer benefits because they no longer have to "disinfect" the cart handle.

    MMD Newswire: Press Release News Wire 2009

  • They do exist for Linux, but they are mostly useful for preventing spreading an infected file to Windows users you might share files from the internet with, or for helping "disinfect" friends '

    PCLinuxOS-Forums 2009

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