Definition of Virus

Babylon English Dictionary
microorganism which functions as an infectious agent; computer program which is intended to be spread surreptitiously between computers and usually causes damage (Computers)
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Virus Definition from Arts & Humanities Dictionaries & Glossaries
JM Latin-English Dictionary
N
venom (sg.)| poisonous secretion of snakes/creatures/plants; acrid element
LATIN- ENGLISH (AZAD)
virus, slime, poison.
Virus Definition from Language, Idioms & Slang Dictionaries & Glossaries
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
(v. i.)
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.
  
(v. i.)
Fig.: Any morbid corrupting quality in intellectual or moral conditions; something that poisons the mind or the soul; as, the virus of obscene books.
  
(v. i.)
Contagious or poisonous matter, as of specific ulcers, the bite of snakes, etc.; -- applied to organic poisons.
  
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), edited by Noah Porter. About
hEnglish - advanced version

virus
\vi"rus\ (?), n. [l., a slimy liquid, a poisonous liquid, poison, stench; akin to gr. &?; poison, skr. visha. cf. wizen, v. i.]
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.
note: 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.
virus
n : ultramicroscopic infectious agent that replicates itself only within cells of living hosts; many are pathogenic


  similar words(11) 



 general public virus 
 variola minor virus 
 wound tumor virus 
 varicella zoster virus 
 respiratory syncytial virus 
 tobacco mosaic virus 
 tumor virus 
 virus infection 
 variola virus 
 variola major virus 
 boot virus 
Concise English-Irish Dictionary v. 1.1
víreas
Australian Slang
the HIV virus, Himan Immunodeficiency Virus
WordNet 2.0

Noun
1. (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
(hypernym) microorganism
(hyponym) arbovirus, arborvirus
(classification) virology
(class) virion
2. a harmful or corrupting agency; "bigotry is a virus that must not be allowed to spread"; "the virus of jealousy is latent in everyone"
(hypernym) representation, delegacy, agency
3. a software program capable of reproducing itself and usually capable of causing great harm to files or other programs on the same computer; "a true virus cannot spread to another computer without human assistance"
(synonym) computer virus
(hypernym) malevolent program
Virus Definition from Business & Finance Dictionaries & Glossaries
Virus Definition from Science & Technology Dictionaries & Glossaries
BioProcess International™ Glossary
a microorganism that grows and reproduces in living cells of a host (bacteria, plant, or animal); the simplest form of life, more than 200 viruses are known to produce human disease.
Copyright © 2002 - 2006, BioProcess International™. All rights reserved.
Bioglossary
Description: Microorganism without a cell wall, able to reproduce only by inserting itself into a host cell and hijacking the reproduction mechanism for its own ends. (The virus is then said to infest the cell.).
Source: Specialized encyclopedia and dictionaries

Description: An infectious agent composed of a single type of nucleic acid, DNA or RNA, enclosed in a coat of protein. Viruses can multiply only within living cells.
Source: Specialized encyclopedia and dictionaries
© European Communities, 1995-2004
Common Terms in Evolutionary Biology and Genetics
A disease causing agent consisting of a nucleic acid molecule and protein coat. Viruses are incapable of autonomous replication and have to use a host cell's translational system.
Telecommunication Standard Terms
An unwanted program which places itself into other programs which are shared among computer systems, and replicates itself. Note: A virus is usually manifested by a destructive or disruptive effect on the executable program that it affects.
RF Electronics
Destructive code that is embedded in a computer program. The virus is usually self-replicating and will often copy itself onto other programs.
Biological Control
Any of various submicroscopic pathogens which can only replicate inside a living cell.
Catherine R. Weeden
Technical English by wpv
A program that replicates itself from one file or disk to another without your consent. They are spread through floppy disks, networks, and on-line services and can go undetected (unless you have an antiviral utility) until something goes wrong. Some viruses deliberately destroy data, and even those designed to be benign can cause crashes, slowdowns, and file corruption.
Virus Definition from Computer & Internet Dictionaries & Glossaries
Red Alert 2
Owner: Yuri (Only aviable in Yuri's Revenge)
She can shoot darts filled with virus, causing the victim to die and explode in a toxic cloud of gas, which will also kill nearby infantry unints and even damage buildings.
9300+ Computer Acronyms
Vital Information Resources Under Siege
Jargon File
n. [from the obvious analogy with biological viruses, via SF] A cracker program that searches out other programs and `infects' them by embedding a copy of itself in them, so that they become Trojan horses. When these programs are executed, the embedded virus is executed too, thus propagating the `infection'. This normally happens invisibly to the user. Unlike a worm, a virus cannot infect other computers without assistance. It is propagated by vectors such as humans trading programs with their friends (see SEX). The virus may do nothing but propagate itself and then allow the program to run normally. Usually, however, after propagating silently for a while, it starts doing things like writing cute messages on the terminal or playing strange tricks with the display (some viruses include nice display hacks). Many nasty viruses, written by particularly perversely minded crackers, do irreversible damage, like nuking all the user's files.

In the 1990s, viruses have become a serious problem, especially among Wintel and Macintosh users; the lack of security on these machines enables viruses to spread easily, even infecting the operating system (Unix machines, by contrast, are immune to such attacks). The production of special anti-virus software has become an industry, and a number of exaggerated media reports have caused outbreaks of near hysteria among users; many lusers tend to blame everything that doesn't work as they had expected on virus attacks. Accordingly, this sense of `virus' has passed not only into techspeak but into also popular usage (where it is often incorrectly used to denote a worm or even a Trojan horse). See phage; compare back door; see also Unix conspiracy.

Glossary of the European Information Society
Small informatics programme able to disrupt the functioning of other programmes.
© European Communities, 1995-2004
A Glossary of Internet & PC Terminology
This is a program which can damage the files on your PC - often created intentionally to do so.
Jensen's Technology Glossary
a hardware/software infection designed intentionally to corrupt a computer, computer files, and/or networks.  For virus updates and news, two good web sites are Network Associates at http://www.nai.com/vinfo/ and Mcafee at http://www.mcafee.com/ .  (Also see ActiveX.)
Internet Glossary
A virus is a malicious piece of software programmed to spread itself over the Internet. Viruses can range from fairly harmless to ones that can cause data loss. You should always have a current virus protection program on your computer. How to avoid a virus <http://www.vicnet.net.au/news/virus.htm>. See also "worm" and "trojan horse". Be careful not to spread one of the many virus hoaxes! This misinformation damages the reputation of both the Internet and companies involved. Check the Latest Hoax News <http://www.stiller.com/hoaxes.htm>.
WEB

Internetworking Terms
A program which replicates itself on computer systems by incorporating itself into other programs which are shared among computer systems. See also: Trojan Horse, worm.
INTERNET TERMS&ACRONYMSV1.0
A destructive program that has the ability to reproduce itself and infect other programs or disks.The best defense is to run anti-virus software and use it on all new software and disks introduced to your system.
Panda Software Glossary
Viruses are programs that can enter computers or IT systems in a number of ways, causing effects that range from simply annoying to highly-destructive and irreparable.
Virus Definition from Encyclopedia Dictionaries & Glossaries
Wikipedia English - The Free Encyclopedia
A virus is a small infectious agent that can replicate only inside the living cells of an organism. Viruses can infect all types of organism, from animals and plants to bacteria and archaea.

See more at Wikipedia.org...
© This article uses material from Wikipedia® and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License and under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License
Virus Definition from Society & Culture Dictionaries & Glossaries
Environmental Engineering (English ver.)
  The smallest form of microorganisms capable of causing disease. Especially, a virus of fecal origin that is infectious to humans by waterborne transmission.
Virus Definition from Entertainment & Music Dictionaries & Glossaries
English to Federation-Standard Golic Vulcan
rihak
Virus Definition from Medicine Dictionaries & Glossaries
NCI Dictionary of Cancer Terms
[VYE-rus]
A microorganism that can infect cells and cause disease.
A Service of the National Cancer Institute.
Terms and Definitions
A noncellular biological entity that can reproduce only within a host cell. Viruses consist of nucleic acid covered by protein; some animal viruses are also surrounded by membrane. Inside the infected cell, the virus uses the synthetic capability of the host to produce progeny virus.
Dictionary of Medicine (Shahram)
A virus is a microbe which cannot grow or reproduce apart from a living cell. It is smaller in size than a bacterium. Viruses cause most of the common human infections, but are also responsible for causing many rare illnesses. Examples of viral illnesses include the common cold and acquired immunodeficiency disease syndrome (AIDS).
The Glossary of the American Council on Science and Health
Any of a class of noncellular parasites that are smaller than bacteria, can multiply only within living cells, and consist of a strand of either DNA or RNA and at least one protein cover.
Hepatitis Central (TM) Liver Disease Medical Glossary
A vast group of minute structures, composed of a sheath of protein encasing a core of nucleic acids which are the building blocks of RNA and DNA. They are capable of infecting almost all members of the animal and plant kingdoms, including bacteria. Viruses are characterised by a total dependence on living host cells for reproduction and lack independent metabolism. Most viruses only infect one species. HCV only infects humans. 2. Living virus that can multiply in the body and cause disease 3. Sub-microscopic life form that uses host cells - bacteria, plant cells, or even human body cells to reproduce itself. A virus normally consists of a small amount of genetic material (which it uses to reproduce itself) and a protective coat. Viruses are very small, most human viruses are less than 150 nanometers in diameter
Aids Glossary
a submicroscopic organism that can replicate only when it is inside another cell.
Aegis
Glossary of HIV/AIDS-Related Terms
Organism composed mainly of nucleic acid within a protein coat, ranging in size from 100 to 2,000 angstroms (unit of length; 1 angstrom is equal to 10-10 meters). When viruses enter a living plant, animal, or bacterial cell, they make use of the host cell's chemical energy and protein -- and nucleic acid -- synthesizing ability to replicate themselves. Nucleic acids<!-- (see) --> in viruses are single stranded or double stranded, and may be DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid; see) or RNA (ribonucleic acid; see). After the infected host cell makes viral components and virus particles are released, the host cell is often dissolved. Some viruses do not kill cells but transform them into a cancerous state; some cause illness and then seem to disappear, while remaining latent and later causing another, sometimes much more severe, form of disease. In humans, viruses cause -- among others -- measles, mumps, yellow fever, poliomyelitis, influenza, and the common cold. Some viral infections can be treated with drugs.
ATIS
HIV Vaccine Glossary
a microorganism composed of a piece of genetic material -- RNA or DNA -- surrounded by a protein coat. To replicate, a virus must infect a cell and direct its cellular machinery to produce new viruses.
Glossary of HIV/AIDS Terms
A strand of DNA surrounded by a protein shell. Viruses are the smallest known infectious organisms and are unable to live or multiply outside of a host cell. Viruses can cause infectious disease (e.g., small pox, polio, influenza, herpes). Infection with some viruses, such as CMV, may not produce symptoms in people with an intact immune system, but may prove dangerous or life-threatening for people with HIV/AIDS.