quarantine

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

• noun A condition, period of time, or place in which a person, animal, plant, vehicle, or amount of material suspected of carrying an infectious agent is kept in confinement or isolated in an effort to prevent disease from spreading.
• noun An action resulting in such a condition.
• noun An action to isolate another nation, such as a blockade of its ports or a severance of diplomatic or trade relations.
• noun The condition of being isolated by such an action.
• noun Computers The isolation of data or data transmissions in order to keep viruses, worms, or other malware from infecting a computer or computer network.
• transitive verb To isolate in quarantine.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun Aperiod of forty days.
• noun A term, originally of forty days, but now of varying length according to the exigencies of the case, during which a ship arriving in port and known or suspected to be infected with a malignant contagious disease is obliged to for-bear all intercourse with the place where she arrives.
• noun The enforced isolation of individuals and certain objects coming, whether by sea or by land, from a place where dangerous communicable disease is presumably or actually present, with a view to limiting the spread of the malady.
• noun Hence, by extension: The isolation of any person suffering or convalescing from acute contagious disease.
• noun The isolation of a dwelling or of a town or district in which a contagious disease exists.
• noun A place or station where quarantine is enforced.
• noun The restriction within limits awarded to naval cadets as a punishment.
• To put under quarantine, in any sense of that word.
• Figuratively, to isolate, as by authority.

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

• noun A space of forty days; -- used of Lent.
• noun Specifically, the term, originally of forty days, during which a ship arriving in port, and suspected of being infected a malignant contagious disease, is obliged to forbear all intercourse with the shore; hence, such restraint or inhibition of intercourse; also, the place where infected or prohibited vessels are stationed.
• noun (Eng. Law) The period of forty days during which the widow had the privilege of remaining in the mansion house of which her husband died seized.
• noun a yellow flag hoisted at the fore of a vessel or hung from a building, to give warning of an infectious disease; -- called also the yellow jack, and yellow flag.
• transitive verb To compel to remain at a distance, or in a given place, without intercourse, when suspected of having contagious disease; to put under, or in, quarantine.

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

• noun A sanitary measure to prevent the spread of a contagious plague by isolating those believed to be infected.
• noun Such official detention of a ship at or off port due to suspicion that it may be carrying a contagious disease aboard.
• noun A certain place for isolating persons suspected of suffering from a contagious disease.
• noun A certain period of time during which a person is isolated to determine whether they've been infected with a contagious disease.
• noun by extension Any rigorous measure of isolation, regardless of the reason.
• noun A record system kept by port health authorities in order to monitor and prevent the spread of contagious diseases.
• noun computing A place where email messages or other files which are suspected of harboring a virus are stored.
• verb To retain in obligatory isolation or separation, as a sanitary measure to prevent the spread of contagious disease.
• verb To put in isolation as if by quarantine
• noun A desert in which Christ fasted for 40 days according to the Bible
• noun A grace period of 40 days during which a widow has the right to remain in her dead husband's home, regardless of the inheritance

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

• noun isolation to prevent the spread of infectious disease
• noun enforced isolation of patients suffering from a contagious disease in order to prevent the spread of disease
• verb place into enforced isolation, as for medical reasons