infect

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• transitive verb To invade and proliferate in, often resulting in disease. Used of microorganisms or other infectious agents.
• transitive verb To cause the invasion of (a cell, for example) with a microorganism or other infectious agent.
• transitive verb To transmit a pathogen or disease to.
• transitive verb To contaminate with a pathogenic microorganism or agent.
• transitive verb Computers To become transmitted to and copied on (a hard drive, for example). Used of a virus or other harmful software.
• transitive verb To affect by transmission or be communicated to. Used of an idea, emotion, or attitude.

from The Century Dictionary.

• In philology, to affect the quality of a sound in a following or preceding syllable: used especially in reference to the influence of prominent vowels, and phonetic changes, in the Celtic language.
• Infected; tainted; affected unfavorably.
• Contaminated with illegality; having a flaw in the title.
• Marred; discolored; darkened.
• To affect as with something infused or instilled; imbue; impregnate; permeate: used especially of that which is bad or hurtful, but sometimes also of that which is good or indifferent.
• Specifically To taint with disease or the seeds of disease, either physical or moral: as, to infect a person with smallpox; literature infected with immorality.
• In law, to taint or contaminate with illegality, or expose to penalty, seizure, or forfeiture.
• Synonyms To poison, pollute, defile.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• transitive verb To taint with morbid matter or any pestilential or noxious substance or effluvium by which disease is produced
• transitive verb To affect with infectious disease; to communicate infection to.
• transitive verb 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.
• transitive verb (Law) To contaminate with illegality or to expose to penalty.
• adjective obsolete Infected. Cf. enfect.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• verb transitive to bring into contact with a substance that can cause illness (a pathogen)
• verb transitive to make somebody enthusiastic about one's own passion

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• verb affect in a contagious way
• verb communicate a disease to
• verb corrupt with ideas or an ideology
• verb contaminate with a disease or microorganism