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Glite Dictionary
to enforce a quarantine

to enforce a quarantine

5.8
Keep people or places apart to stop disease spreading
  • phrasal verb
  • /ɪnˈfɔrs ə ˈkwɔrənˌtiːn/
translation icon : imponer una cuarentena
  • The government decided to enforce a quarantine in the affected area to stop the spread of the virus.

Examples

  • To protect public health, officials must enforce a quarantine for anyone showing symptoms of infection.

  • Doctors advised the authorities to enforce a quarantine after the disease outbreak in the city.

  • The PLAN can place a relatively large number of ships in waters near Taiwanese ports to enforce a quarantine.

    Academic text (1997)

Synonyms

to seal off
vsto enforce a quarantine
47 3.9

Stop people from entering or leaving an area by blocking it

is specific to health isolation and keeping people or areas separated
to quarantine
vsto enforce a quarantine
43 4.8

To put a person, animal, or place away from others to stop disease spreading

is about imposing and keeping that isolation to prevent disease

Antonyms

release
279 1.8

An act of letting someone or something go free from being held

How Forceful

to clamp down
18 4.2
to enforce a quarantine
5.8

Surface Forms

enforce a quarantine infinitive

Morphology

enforce + a + quarantine

The meaning 'to impose and maintain isolation...' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'enforce' (ensure compliance) with 'quarantine' (a period of enforced isolation); the article 'a' is semantically light. This compositional enforcement + measure pattern is common across languages, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent words will very likely understand the MWE.

Etymology

Enforce a quarantine may come from old health rules where officials closed off a house or area and stood guard so sick people could not leave. To enforce means to make people follow the quarantine, so today it means 'to make and keep people apart to stop a disease from spreading'.