NOUN (2)

1. enforced isolation of patients suffering from a contagious disease in order to prevent the spread of disease;

2. isolation to prevent the spread of infectious disease;


VERB (1)

1. place into enforced isolation, as for medical reasons;
- Example: "My dog was quarantined before he could live in England"

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Quarantine \Quar"an*tine\, n. [F. quarantaine, OF. quaranteine,
   fr. F. quarante forty, L. quadraginta, akin to quattuor four,
   and E. four: cf. It. quarantina, quarentine. See Four, and
   cf. Quadragesima.]
   1. A space of forty days; -- used of Lent.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. 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.
      [1913 Webster]

   Note: Quarantine is now applied also to any forced stoppage
         of travel or communication on account of malignant
         contagious disease, on land as well as by sea.
         [1913 Webster]

   3. (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.
      [1913 Webster]

   Quarantine flag, 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.
      [1913 Webster]

The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Quarantine \Quar`an*tine"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Quarantined;
   p. pr. & vb. n. Quarantining.]
   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.
   [1913 Webster]

Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:

135 Moby Thesaurus words for "quarantine":
   Jim Crow, alien, apartheid, apartness, beleaguer, beleaguerment,
   beset, besetment, besiege, blockade, blockading, bolt, bound,
   box in, cage, chamber, circumscription, close in, color bar,
   compass, confinement, contain, coop, coop in, coop up, cordon,
   cordon off, cordon sanitaire, cordoning, cordoning off, corral,
   cull out, detachment, divide, division, encircle, enclose,
   enclosure, encompass, enshrine, envelopment, ethnocentrism,
   exclusiveness, fence in, foreigner, ghettoize, gin, hedge in,
   hem in, house in, immurement, impound, imprison, imprisonment,
   incarcerate, incarceration, include, inclusion, insularity,
   insulate, insulation, isolate, isolation, isolationism, jail,
   keep apart, keep aside, kennel, know-nothingism, lay aside,
   leaguer, mew, mew up, narrowness, out-group, outcast, outsider,
   parochialism, pen, pen in, persona non grata, pick out, pocket,
   privacy, privatism, privatization, put aside, quarantine flag,
   race hatred, racial segregation, rail in, recess, reclusion,
   retirement, retreat, riddle, rope off, rustication,
   sanitary cordon, screen, seal off, seclude, seclusion, secrecy,
   segregate, segregation, separate, separation, sequestration,
   set apart, set aside, shrine, shut in, shut up, siege, sieve, sift,
   snobbishness, sort out, splendid isolation, stable, stranger,
   surround, thrash, thresh, tightness, wall in, winnow, withdrawal,
   wrap, xenophobia, yard, yard up, yellow flag, yellow jack