All 4 Uses of
contagion
in
Tom Jones, by Henry Fielding
- After which, being reminded by Jones that he had broke off his story, he resumed it again in this manner:— "As mankind, in the days I was speaking of, was not yet arrived at that pitch of madness which I find they are capable of now, and which, to be sure, I have only escaped by living alone, and at a distance from the contagion, there was a considerable rising in favour of Monmouth;†
Book 8
- Indeed, so foul and contagious are all such proceedings, that they contaminate the very innocent scenes where they are committed, and give the name of a bad house, or of a house of ill repute, to all those where they are suffered to be carried on.†
Book 9
- Indeed it is otherwise in the want of what is called virtue in a mistress, the consequence of which we have before seen: for in this dishonour there is a kind of contagion, which, like that of poverty, communicates itself to all who approach it.†
Book 12
- It is impossible to conceive a much greater degree of horror than what now seized on Partridge; the contagion of which had reached the post-boy, who had been very attentive to many things that the other had uttered.†
Book 12 *
Definition:
the spread of disease or any idea or attitude -- especially one that is harmful; or an instance of the thing that is spread -- such as a virus