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variolate

American  
[vair-ee-uh-leyt, -lit] / ˈvɛər i əˌleɪt, -lɪt /

adjective

Pathology.

  1. resembling smallpox, as a lesion.

variolate British  
/ ˈvɛərɪəˌleɪt /

verb

  1. (tr) to inoculate with the smallpox virus

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

adjective

  1. marked or pitted with or as if with the scars of smallpox

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

  • variolation noun

Etymology

Origin of variolate

First recorded in 1785–95; variol(a) + -ate 1

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

“So if you can drive up rates of asymptomatic infection with masks, maybe that becomes a way to variolate the population.”

From Seattle Times

We can scarcely suppose that he did anything else than variolate these persons, just as he would have done had he used variolous lymph without the addition of milk.

From Project Gutenberg

Variolate -ose: with large, rounded impressions like pock-marks.

From Project Gutenberg

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.