to quarantine oneself
1
6.2
- phrasal verb
- /ˈkwɔːrənˌtiː wʌnˈsɛlf/
:
ponerse en cuarentena
- When I started feeling unwell, I chose to quarantine myself for two weeks to play it safe and avoid infecting anyone else.
Examples
-
After returning from the outbreak area, I decided to quarantine myself to ensure I would not spread the illness to others.
-
If you are so into protecting the "herd," will you quarantine yourself each time you show the slightest symptoms of a cold or flu?
Blog text (21) -
Then I caught a cold and had to quarantine myself for the second half of the week, fearing that I may spread the plague to the rest of the team.
Blog text (19) -
I live in a big city, and let's face it, walking on the street exposes us to all kinds of harmful toxins in the air, but I'm not about to quarantine myself indoors for 9 months should I get pregnant (I'm presently trying).
Blog text (25) -
To protect my family, I had to quarantine myself in my room until I received my test results.
Synonyms
256
4.2
To keep someone or something apart from others
3
8.6
To shut someone or yourself away from the outside world
2
6.7
To keep somebody away from other people
To keep yourself away from other people on purpose
Antonyms
How Isolated
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to isolate oneself to prevent infection' is transparently derived from combining 'quarantine' (to isolate) with the reflexive 'oneself' indicating the action is done to the subject. This is a straightforward, compositional reflexive construction common across languages, so a B1 learner who knows both words will readily understand the MWE.
Etymology
The verb quarantine oneself comes from an old rule for ships: if a ship might bring disease, people had to stay away for 'forty days' before landing. That practice gave the word quarantine, so quarantine oneself means to keep oneself apart from others to stop spreading disease.