See Also: bovine virus diarrhoea virus(medicine)
B virus(health)
Virus(health)
GAL virus(medicine)
virus(dictionary)
Rs virus(medicine)
FMD virus(medicine)
FA virus(medicine)
EMC virus(medicine)
EEE virus(medicine)

virus (iou)



virus noun. LME.
[Latin = slimy liquid, poison, offensive odour or taste.]
The venom of a snake etc. L16.
a. Medicine. A substance produced in the body as the result of disease; esp. one capable, after inoculation, of infecting other people or animals with the same disease. obsolete exc. Hist. E18.
b. Medicine & Microbiology. A submicroscopic organism that can multiply only inside living host cells, has a non-cellular structure lacking any intrinsic metabolism and usu. comprising a single DNA or RNA molecule inside a protein coat, and is freq. pathogenic. L19.
adenovirus, Lassa virus, orphan virus, para-influenza virus, RNA virus, etc.
c. An infection with such an organism. colloq. M20.
A moral or intellectual poison; a harmful, corrupting, or malignant influence. Also, an infectious fear, anxiety, etc. L18.
Daily Telegraph The brutal plague of war is gone, but the virus remains as the peace matures.
Computing. More fully computer virus. An unauthorized self-replicating program that can interfere with or destroy other programs, and can transfer itself to other systems via disks or networks. L20.
virus-like adjective resembling a virus M20.