quarantine

1. A period of 40 days, particularlyExamples: "Querentyne is where a man dyeth seisyd of a maner place and other landis where of the wyfe ought to be indowed, than the woman shall hold the maner place by .xl. days within which tyme her dower shalbe to her assyned."countablehistoricaluncountable

2. A period of 40 days, particularlycountablehistoricaluncountable

3. A period of 40 days, particularlyExamples: "Quarantain of the King, is a Truce of forty Days appointed by S. Louis; during which it was expressly forbid to take any Revenge of the Relation or Friends of People."; "Forty days, called the King's quarantain, were allowed the friends or relations of a principal in a private war to grant or find security."countablehistoricaluncountable

4. (figurative) A similar period, instance, or state of rigidly enforced or self-enforced detention or isolation.Examples: "Now treating Sandwich seems the fittest choice For Spain, there to condole and to rejoyce: He meets the French, but to avoid all harms, Slips into Groine, Embassies bears no Arms. There let him languish a long Quarrentine, And ne're to England come, till he be clean."; "What I wish to put under Quarantine are family events—& all allusion thereto past—present—or to come."countablefigurativelyuncountable

5. (politics, figurative) A blockade of trade, suspension of diplomatic relations, or other action whereby one country seeks to isolate another.Examples: "When a great power establishes diplomatic quarantine against them it is well not to go too far on a course on which they appear to be embarking with a light heart."; "President Roosevelt today challenged the effectiveness of a policy of neutrality in keeping the United States at peace and advocated instead a collective ‘quarantine’ of aggressor nations."; "To halt this offensive buildup, a strict quarantine on all offensive military equipment under shipment to Cuba is being initiated. All ships of any kind bound for Cuba from whatever nation or port will, if found to contain cargoes of offensive weapons, be turned back. This quarantine will be extended, if needed, to other types of cargo and carries."countablefigurativelyuncountable

6. (computing, figurative) An isolation of one program, drive, computer, etc. from the rest of a computer network to limit the damage from a bug, computer virus, etc.Examples: "Also included is Canary, a ‘quarantine’ program for use as a sample to test for a virus by pairing it with new or suspect programs."; "At least one expert says... that a quarantine can be futile if the software is infected with a time-activated virus."countablefigurativelyuncountable