Definition of "inoculation" []

• The act or an instance of inoculating, especially the introduction of an antigenic substance or vaccine into the body to produce immunity to a specific disease. (noun)
• Informal A preemptive advertising tactic in which one party attempts to foresee and neutralize potentially damaging criticism from another party by being the first to confront troublesome issues. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "In my part of London, we have live smallpox measles and TB scares on a regular basis, because so many parents have been convinced that inoculation is bad for kids that they won't get them their jabs."
• "In her poem, inoculation is performed by Oberon who gathers all kinds of magical ingredients to ease her daughter Marias recovery."
• "At the same time an inoculation from the charge of “these extremist GOP crazies” may help prevent a total GOP bleed out for 2006."