quarantine
part of speech
noun (quarantine — uncountable; a quarantine, quarantines); verb (quarantine, quarantines, quarantined, quarantining)
meaning for a pupil
1) Quarantine is a time when a person or animal who may have a catching disease is kept away from others so the disease does not spread. tree →
2) (verb) To quarantine someone or something is to keep them apart for this reason. tree →
3) In computing, to quarantine a file is to lock away a file that may have a virus. tree →
sense in the lessons
In science and health lessons, quarantine stops infections spreading, for example during the COVID-19 pandemic, when many people stayed home. In everyday life in Australia and New Zealand, strict quarantine (biosecurity) at airports stops pests and diseases arriving on food, plants and animals; pets coming from abroad may need quarantine. In history, ships with sick sailors were kept in quarantine. Common phrases: «in quarantine», «go into quarantine», «quarantine period», «under quarantine».
examples
- The new puppy had to stay in quarantine for ten days. tree →
- During the pandemic, our family went into quarantine. tree →
- Australian airports have strict quarantine rules for fruit and plants. tree →
- The ship was kept in quarantine until no one was sick. tree →
- The antivirus program quarantined the dangerous file. tree →
- Sick chickens were quarantined away from the flock. tree →
- The quarantine lasted two weeks. tree →
note
Say KWOR-an-teen. It comes from Italian «quaranta giorni», «forty days», the time ships waited long ago. Not the same as «isolation»: isolation is for people who are definitely sick; quarantine is for people who might be.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «quarantine» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.