Word family noun infection disinfectant adjective infectious infected verb infect ≠ disinfect adverb infectiously
From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishinfectin‧fect /ɪnˈfekt/ ●●○ verb [transitive] 1 MIto give someone a disease People with the virus may feel perfectly well, but they can still infect others.infect with the number of people infected with HIV2 MIto make something contain something harmful that gives people a diseasebe infected with something Eggs known to be infected with salmonella were allowed to go on sale.Grammar Infect is usually passive in this meaning.3 MIif a feeling or interest that you have infects other people, it makes them begin to feel the same way or have the same interest Lucy’s enthusiasm soon infected the rest of the class.4 if a virus infects your computer or disk, it changes or destroys the information in or on it→ See Verb tableExamples from the Corpus
infect• The fruits were infected by a fungus disease called brown rot.• The book may infect you with a passion for mountain climbing.infect with• Twenty people were infected with tuberculosis by one sick employee.From Longman Business Dictionaryinfectin‧fect /ɪnˈfekt/ verb [transitive] COMPUTING if a computer VIRUS (=a program put secretly into your computer) infects your computer, the programs on the computer stop working properlyOnce write-protected, a disk can’t be infected by a virus.→ See Verb tableOrigin infect (1300-1400) Latin past participle of inficere “to dip in, stain” 