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Definition of infect : 1. Infected. Cf. Enfect.
2. To affect with infectious disease; to communicate infection to; as, infected with the plague.
3. To communicate to or affect with, as qualities or emotions, esp. bad qualities; to corrupt; to contaminate; to taint by the communication of anything noxious or pernicious.
4. To contaminate with illegality or to expose to penalty.
5. To taint with morbid matter or any pestilential or noxious substance or effluvium by which disease is produced; as, to infect a lancet; to infect an apartment.

Synonyms:

spoil, pollute, empoison, taint, affect, cloud, sully, befoul, soil, stain, help, vitiate, tarnish, corrupt, clean, canker, envenom, defile

poison, contaminate, sicken

Usage examples:

• He might find some isolated community, conceal himself near it, invade it at night and infect it, and then, when everybody was dead, move in and take it for himself. - "Flight From Tomorrow", Henry Beam Piper.
• " To infect the young maidens with her vices, or plague them with her pride? - "Sidonia The Sorceress V1", William Mienhold.
• Among the facts which they bring to light, some are sufficiently startling; as, for example, the proposal of the Commander- in- Chief to infect the hostile tribes with the small- pox, and that of a distinguished subordinate officer to take revenge on the Indians by permitting an unrestricted sale of rum. - "The Conspiracy of Pontiac and the Indian War after the Conquest of Canada", Francis Parkman.