virus

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: vi=rus

CIDE DICTIONARY

virus, n. [L., a slimy liquid, a poisonous liquid, poison, stench; akin to Gr. poison, Skr. visha. Cf. Wizen, v. i.].

•  Contagious or poisonous matter, as of specific ulcers, the bite of snakes, etc.; -- applied to organic poisons.  [1913 Webster]
•  the causative agent of a disease, .  [PJC]
•  any of numerous submicroscopic complex organic objects which have genetic material and may be considered as living organisms but have no proper cell membrane, and thus cannot by themselves perform metabolic processes, requiring entry into a host cell in order to multiply. The simplest viruses have no lipid envelope and may be considered as complex aggregates of molecules, sometimes only a nucleic acid (DNA or RNA) and a coat protein. They are sometimes viewed as being on the borderline between living and nonliving objects. They are smaller than living cells in size, usually between 20 and 300 nm; thus they pass through standard filters, and were previously referred to as filterable virus. The manifestations of disease caused by multiplication of viruses in cells may be due to destruction of the cells caused by subversion of the cellular metabolic processes by the virus, or by synthesis of a virus-specific toxin. Viruses may infect animals, plants, or microorganisms; those infecting bacteria are also called bacteriophages. Certain bacteriophages may be non-destructive and benign in the host; -- see bacteriophage.  [1913 Webster]
•  Fig.: Any morbid corrupting quality in intellectual or moral conditions; something that poisons the mind or the soul; as, the virus of obscene books.  [1913 Webster]
•  a program or segment of program code that may make copies of itself (replicate), attach itself to other programs, and perform unwanted actions within a computer; also called computer virus or virus program. Such programs are almost always introduced into a computer without the knowledge or assent of its owner, and are often malicious, causing destructive actions such as erasing data on disk, but sometime only annoying, causing peculiar objects to appear on the display. The form of sociopathic mental disease that causes a programmer to write such a program has not yet been given a name. Compare trojan horse{3}.  [PJC]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

virus, n.
1 a microscopic organism consisting mainly of nucleic acid in a protein coat, multiplying only in living cells and often causing diseases.
2 Computing = computer virus.
3 archaic a poison, a source of disease.
4 a harmful or corrupting influence.

Etymology

L, = slimy liquid, poison

THESAURUS

virus

acaricide, adenovirus, aerial infection, aerobe, aerobic bacteria, aerobic organism, airborne infection, amoeba, anaerobe, anaerobic bacteria, anaerobic organism, anthelmintic, antibiotic, antiseptic, autotrophic organism, bacillus, bacteria, bacterium, bane, being, bug, bug bomb, carbamate insecticide, carrier, chemosterilant, chlorinated hydrocarbon insecticide, coccus, communicability, contact poison, contagion, contagiousness, contamination, corruption, creature, cryptogenic infection, defoliant, direct infection, disease-producing microorganism, disinfectant, droplet infection, dust infection, echovirus, enterovirus, epidemiology, eradicant, filterable virus, fumigant, fungicide, fungus, genetic individual, germ, germicide, gram-negative bacteria, gram-positive bacteria, hand infection, herbicide, heterotrophic organism, indirect infection, individual, infection, infectiousness, insect powder, insecticide, living being, living thing, microbe, microbicide, microorganism, miticide, mold, morphological individual, nonfilterable virus, ont, organic being, organic chlorine, organic phosphate insecticide, organism, organization, pathogen, pesticide, physiological individual, phytogenic infection, picornavirus, poison, primary infection, protozoa, protozoon, pyogenic infection, rat poison, reovirus, rhinovirus, rickettsia, roach paste, roach powder, rodenticide, secondary infection, spirillum, spirochete, spore, staphylococcus, stomach poison, streptococcus, subclinical infection, systemic, systemic insecticide, taint, toxic, toxicant, toxin, trypanosome, vector, venin, venom, vermicide, vibrio, waterborne infection, weed killer, zoogenic infection, zooid, zoon

ROGET THESAURUS

virus

Disease

N disease, illness, sickness, ailing, all the ills that flesh is heir to, morbidity, morbosity, infirmity, ailment, indisposition, complaint, disorder, malady, distemper, distemperature, visitation, attack, seizure, stroke, fit, delicacy, loss of health, invalidation, cachexy, cachexia, atrophy, marasmus, indigestion, dyspepsia, decay, decline, consumption, palsy, paralysis, prostration, taint, pollution, infection, sepsis, septicity, infestation, epidemic, pandemic, endemic, epizootic, murrain, plague, pestilence, pox, sore, ulcer, abscess, fester, boil, pimple, wen, carbuncle, gathering, imposthume, peccant humor, issue, rot, canker, cold sore, fever sore, cancer, carcinoma, leukemia, neoplastic disease, malignancy, tumor, caries, mortification, corruption, gangrene, sphacelus, sphacelation, leprosy, eruption, rash, breaking out, fever, temperature, calenture, inflammation, ague, angina pectoris, appendicitis, Asiatic cholera, spasmodic cholera, biliary calculus, kidney stone, black death, bubonic plague, pneumonic plague, blennorrhagia, blennorrhoea, blood poisoning, bloodstroke, bloody flux, brash, breakbone fever, dengue fever, malarial fever, Q-fever, heart attack, cardiac arrest, cardiomyopathy, hardening of the arteries, arteriosclerosis, atherosclerosis, bronchocele, canker rash, cardialgia, carditis, endocarditis, cholera, asphyxia, chlorosis, chorea, cynanche, dartre, enanthem, enanthema, erysipelas, exanthem, exanthema, gallstone, goiter, gonorrhea, green sickness, grip, grippe, influenza, flu, hay fever, heartburn, heaves, rupture, hernia, hemorrhoids, piles, herpes, itch, king's evil, lockjaw, measles, mumps, polio, necrosis, pertussis, phthisis, pneumonia, psora, pyaemia, pyrosis, quinsy, rachitis, ringworm, rubeola, St. Vitus's dance, scabies, scarlatina, scarlet fever, scrofula, seasickness, struma, syntexis, tetanus, tetter, tonsillitis, tonsilitis, tracheocele, trachoma, trismus, varicella, varicosis, variola, water qualm, whooping cough, yellow fever, yellow jack, fatal disease, dangerous illness, galloping consumption, churchyard cough, general breaking up, break up of the system, idiocy insanity, martyr to disease, cripple, the halt the lame and the blind, valetudinary, valetudinarian, invalid, patient, case, sickroom, sick- chamber, pathology, etiology, nosology, anthrax, bighead, blackleg, blackquarter, cattle plague, glanders, mange, scrapie, milk sickness, heartworm, feline leukemia, roundworms, quarter-evil, quarter-ill, rinderpest, virus, bacterium, bacteria, DNA virus, RNA virus, rhinovirus, rhabdovirus, picornavirus, herpesvirus, cytomegalovirus, CMV, human immunodefficiency virus, HIV, diseased, ailing, ill, ill of, taken ill, seized with, indisposed, unwell, sick, squeamish, poorly, seedy, affected with illness, afflicted with illness, laid up, confined, bedridden, invalided, in hospital, on the sick list, out of health, out of sorts, under the weather, valetudinary, unsound, unhealthy, sickly, morbid, morbose, healthless, infirm, chlorotic, unbraced, drooping, flagging, lame, crippled, halting, morbid, tainted, vitiated, peccant, contaminated, poisoned, tabid, mangy, leprous, cankered, rotten, rotten to the core, rotten at the core, withered, palsied, paralytic, dyspeptic, luetic, pneumonic, pulmonic, phthisic, rachitic, syntectic, syntectical, tabetic, varicose, touched in the wind, broken-winded, spavined, gasping, hors de combat, weakly, weakened, decrepit, decayed, incurable, in declining health, cranky, in a bad way, in danger, prostrate, moribund, morbific epidemic, endemic, zymotic.