virus Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun (virology) ultramicroscopic infectious agent that replicates itself only within cells of living hosts; many are pathogenic; a piece of nucleic acid (DNA or RNA) wrapped in a thin coat of protein
  2. noun a harmful or corrupting agency
    • bigotry is a virus that must not be allowed to spread
    • the virus of jealousy is latent in everyone
  3. noun a software program capable of reproducing itself and usually capable of causing great harm to files or other programs on the same computer
    computer virus.
    • a true virus cannot spread to another computer without human assistance

WordNet

Vi"rus noun
Etymology
L., a slimy liquid, a poisonous liquid, poison, stench; akin to Gr. poison, Skr. visha. Cf. Wizen, v. i.
Definitions
  1. (Med.) (a) Contagious or poisonous matter, as of specific ulcers, the bite of snakes, etc.; -- applied to organic poisons. (b) The special contagion, inappreciable to the senses and acting in exceedingly minute quantities, by which a disease is introduced into the organism and maintained there. ✍ The specific virus of diseases is now regarded as a microscopic living vegetable organism which multiplies within the body, and, either by its own action or by the associated development of a chemical poison, causes the phenomena of the special disease.
  2. Fig.: Any morbid corrupting quality in intellectual or moral conditions; something that poisons the mind or the soul; as, the virus of obscene books.

Webster 1913