vaccine

vak-SEEN/vækˈsin/UKVAK-seen/ˈvæksiːn/

10 meanings of vaccine

1
nouncountable or uncountable
A medicine that helps your body fight off a disease before you ever get sick.
Like a practice drill that gets your body ready to fight off a real attack.
The doctor gave my little brother a vaccine to protect him from measles.
A new vaccine can take many years to develop and test.
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2
nouncountable
The act of giving a person or animal a vaccine so they are protected from a disease.
The vaccine took two minutes, and then we went out for ice cream.
My little brother cried all the way through both of his vaccines.
Similarshot, jab, vaccination, inoculation, immunization
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3
nounfigurativelycountable
Something that guards against harm, working much like a shot that stops disease.
Strong friendships can be a vaccine against loneliness.
Parents want a vaccine against bullying, but no single rule can protect every child.
Similarantidote, inoculation, safeguard, defense, shield
4
nounfigurativelycountable
A computer program that keeps a computer safe from viruses and other harmful software.
Like a guard at the door who stops bad files from getting in.
She installed a vaccine on her laptop to stop viruses.
The new vaccine caught the harmful file before it could spread.
Similarantivirus
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5
adjectivehistorical
Coming from cowpox sores and used to guard people against smallpox.
Country doctors carried vaccine lymph from village to village.
I will call upon them: they are healthy children, we can have the vaccine infection from them, and I will inoculate the boy myself.
1804, Maria Edgeworth, “To-morrow. Chapter VII. Moral Habits Seldom Changed by Change of Fortune.”Here, vaccine means coming from cowpox and used to protect against smallpox.
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6
adjectivehistorical
Relating to or caused by the cattle disease cowpox.
The dairymaid showed the small vaccine sores on her hands.
A vaccine rash was common among those who milked cows.
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7
nounhistoricaluncountable
The matter taken from cowpox sores and used to protect people from smallpox.
The doctor spread a little vaccine on the cut he had made.
Fresh vaccine was hard to keep during long sea voyages.
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Less common meanings

8
adjectivearchaic
Coming from cattle, or having to do with cattle.
The farmer sold vaccine hides at the fall market.
They burned vaccine bones to make a coarse fertilizer.
Similarbovine
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9
nounobsoleteuncountable
The cattle disease cowpox, used long ago to protect people from smallpox.
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10
verbarchaictransitive
To give a person or animal a vaccine so they will not catch a disease.
The doctor came to vaccine the whole family against smallpox.
[S]ince you have decided that the boy shall be vaccined, let us send directly for the surgeon and have it done, and then he will be safe.
1804, Maria Edgeworth, “To-morrow. Chapter VII. Moral Habits Seldom Changed by Change of Fortune.”Here, vaccined means given a vaccine so he will not catch a disease.
Similarvaccinate, immunize, inoculate
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Practice

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Origins

Meanings 5–6, 8

A learned word from Latin vaccinus, meaning 'of a cow', from vacca 'cow'. It relates to early use of cowpox to protect against smallpox.

Meanings 1–4, 7, 9–10

The noun probably comes partly from the adjective vaccine and partly from French vaccine/vaccin ('cowpox; smallpox vaccination'), which go back to Latin vaccīnus. The verb comes from the noun.