immunize

present singular third person immunizes · participle present immunizing · participle past immunized · past immunized · alternative immunise

1. transitiveTo make someone or something immune to something.

   It is now clear that the brevity of an indecent broadcast – be it word or image – cannot immunize it from FCC censure.

   2012, Chief Justice John Roberts, 132 US Supreme Court 2677, June 29

2. transitiveTo inoculate someone, and thus produce immunity from a disease.

   Subcutaneous immunization with N-PmpC EcN BGs also resulted in significantly higher systemic production of N-PmpC-specific IgG compared to conjunctivally immunized mice.

   2015 December 12, “Delivery of a Chlamydial Adhesin N-PmpC Subunit Vaccine to the Ocular Mucosa Using Particulate Carriers”, in PLOS ONE, →DOI

   3 more examples

   This kind of warfare [i.e., biological] would have us devouring the world’s children in a manner of speaking and those who are immunologically impaired, presuming we were going to immunize our own population but not those of the antagonist. Thus we would be conducting warfare which by definition would be indiscriminate rather than selective. We would lose control of the evolution of the bacteria that we would be releasing in the multitrillions.

   1992, Douglas MacLean, quoting Marc Lappé, “Ethics and Biological Defense Research”, in Raymond A[llan] Zilinskas, editor, The Microbiologist and Biological Defense Research: Ethics, Politics, and International Security (Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences; 666), New York, N.Y.: The New York Academy of Sciences, →ISBN, part II (Ethics of Biological Defense Research), page 112

   At issue is the so-called MMR vaccine, which immunizes children against measles, mumps and rubella, three potentially deadly diseases that were once common and have been mostly wiped out.

   2002 February 10, Sarah Lyall, “Britain Tries to Quell Fear Over Vaccine for Children”, in The New York Times

   Authorizing a vaccine before that may undermine the public’s trust in the regulatory process, and deter parents who are already anxious about immunizing their children, they warn.

   2022 February 9, Apoorva Mandavilli, “The Next Vaccine Debate: Immunize Young Children Now, or Wait?”, in The New York Times

   Synonyms: inoculate, vaccinate, vaccine