Definition of: quarantine

(kwôr′ən·tēn, kwor′-) noun
1. The enforced isolation for a fixed period of persons, ships, or goods arriving from places infected with contagious disease, or of any persons who have been exposed to such infection.
2. A place designated for the enforcement of such interdiction.
3. The enforced isolation of any person or place infected with contagious disease; loosely, any enforced isolation.
4. A period of forty days.
—v.t. ·tined, ·tin·ing To subject to or retain in quarantine; isolate by or as by quarantine. [<Ital. quarantina <L quadraginta forty]