virulent

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Related to virulent: virulent phage

vir·u·lent

(vîr′yə-lənt, vîr′ə-)

adj.

a. Characterized by, causing, or promoting the rapid onset of severe illness. Used of a disease or toxin.

b. Capable of causing disease by aggressively interfering with the immune system of the host. Used of a pathogen.

2. Extremely hostile or malicious: virulent criticism; a virulent bigot.

[Middle English, from Latin vīrulentus, from vīrus, poison.]

vir′u·lence, vir′u·len·cy n.

vir′u·lent·ly adv.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

virulent

(ˈvɪrʊlənt)

adj

1. (Pathology)

a. (of a microorganism) extremely infective

b. (of a disease) having a rapid course and violent effect

2. extremely poisonous, injurious, etc

3. extremely bitter, hostile, etc

[C14: from Latin vīrulentus full of poison, from vīrus poison; see virus]

ˈvirulently adv

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

vir•u•lent

(ˈvɪr yə lənt, ˈvɪr ə-)

adj.

1. actively poisonous; intensely noxious.

2. highly infective: a virulent disease.

3. violently or spitefully hostile.

4. intensely bitter, spiteful, or malicious.

[1350–1400; Middle English verulent < Latin vīrulentus=vīr(us) poison]

vir′u•lent•ly, adv.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Adj.	1.	virulent - extremely poisonous or injurious; producing venom; "venomous snakes"; "a virulent insect bite" venomous, deadly toxic - of or relating to or caused by a toxin or poison; "suffering from exposure to toxic substances"
	2.	virulent - infectious; having the ability to cause disease avirulent - not virulent; unable to produce disease
	3.	virulent - harsh or corrosive in tone; "an acerbic tone piercing otherwise flowery prose"; "a barrage of acid comments"; "her acrid remarks make her many enemies"; "bitter words"; "blistering criticism"; "caustic jokes about political assassination, talk-show hosts and medical ethics"; "a sulfurous denunciation"; "a vitriolic critique" acid, blistering, caustic, vitriolic, sulfurous, sulphurous, acrid, acerb, acerbic, bitter unpleasant - disagreeable to the senses, to the mind, or feelings ; "an unpleasant personality"; "unpleasant repercussions"; "unpleasant odors"

virulent

adjective

1. vicious, vindictive, bitter, hostile, malicious, resentful, acrimonious, malevolent, spiteful, venomous, rancorous, splenetic, envenomed A virulent personal campaign is being waged against him.
vicious kind, warm, sympathetic, benign, compassionate, amiable, magnanimous

2. deadly, lethal, toxic, poisonous, malignant, pernicious, venomous, septic, infective, injurious, baneful (archaic) A virulent form of the disease has appeared in Belgium.
deadly harmless, innocuous, nontoxic, nonpoisonous

Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

virulent

adjective

1. Extremely destructive or harmful:

baneful, deadly, malignant, noxious, pernicious, pestilent, pestilential.

2. Capable of injuring or killing by poison:

mephitic, mephitical, poison, poisonous, toxic, toxicant, venomous.

3. Bitingly hostile:

acrimonious, bitter, embittered, hard, rancorous, resentful.

Translations

virulent

[ˈvɪrʊlənt] ADJ (Med) (also fig) → virulento

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

virulent

[ˈvɪrjʊlənt] adj

[attack, opposition, loathing] → virulent(e)

[disease, poison] → virulent(e)

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

virulent

adj

(Med) → bösartig; poison → stark, tödlich

(fig: = vicious) attack, speech, critic, opponent → scharf; hatred → unversöhnlich; colour → grell

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

virulent

[ˈvɪrʊlənt] adj (frm) → virulento/a

vir·u·lent

a. virulento-a, nocivo-a, extremadamente tóxico.

virulent

adj virulento

References in classic literature ?

"I protest before you, sir, as a Christian minister, against the sanction of proceedings towards me which are dictated by virulent hatred.

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The virulent redness of his shock head and beard was most startling, and in the thicket of hair twinkled above high cheek-bones two very merry blue eyes.

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She said that I mustn't exercise, or it might prove fatal--if it had been a full-grown snake that struck me she said, I wouldn't have moved a single pace from the nest--I'd have died in my tracks, so virulent is the poison.

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He vanished through the French windows into the house, leaving Lord Galloway in an indescribable temper, at once virulent and vague.

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One little sip of this antidote would have rendered the most virulent poisons of the Borgias innocuous.

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His chance was poor; though I had no more animosity towards him than a virulent disease has against the victim it lays low.

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To augment their misery, a contagious disorder of a dangerous nature spread through the land; and, rendered more virulent by the uncleanness, the indifferent food, and the wretched lodging of the lower classes, swept off many whose fate the survivors were tempted to envy, as exempting them from the evils which were to come.

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These he had boiled down into a yellow liquid quite unknown to science, which was probably the most virulent poison in existence.

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It is a most extraordinary thing, but I never read a patent medicine advertisement without being impelled to the conclusion that I am suffering from the particular disease therein dealt with in its most virulent form.

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She accused him of every mean fault; she said he was stingy, she said he was dull, she said he was vain, selfish; she cast virulent ridicule on everything upon which he was most sensitive.

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I was a precocious actress in her eyes; she sincerely looked on me as a compound of virulent passions, mean spirit, and dangerous duplicity.

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Mr Pancks might, or might not, have caught the illness himself from a subject of this class; but in this category he appeared before Clennam, and the infection he threw off was all the more virulent.