1. (n.) An enforced isolation of a person or thing infected with a contagious disease--originally a period of forty days.

2. (n.) 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.

3. (n.) The period of forty days during which the widow had the privilege of remaining in the mansion house of which her husband died seized.

4. (v. t.) 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.