Definition of "disinfect" [dis•in•fect]

• To cleanse so as to destroy or prevent the growth of disease-carrying microorganisms: disinfect a wound. (verb-transitive)

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.

• "The reason for cleaning first when you wish to disinfect is to remove organic matter—blood, feces, or food, for example—that might inactivate bleach and certain other household disinfectants."
• "Anyway I can't find the evidence for gassing people in groups to 'disinfect' them."
• "Professor von Duhn told me that once when approaching an Italian village in search of inscriptions he was taken for the devil, being unluckily mounted on a black horse and dressed in black, and was met by a priest with a crucifix, who was at last persuaded to "disinfect" him with holy water as a condition of his being admitted to the village."