[ noun ] taking a vaccine as a precaution against contracting a disease <noun.act>
Inoculation \In*oc"u*la"tion\, n. [L. inoculatio: cf. F. inoculation.] 1. The act or art of inoculating trees or plants.
2. (Med.) The act or practice of communicating a disease to a person in health, by inserting contagious matter in his skin or flesh, usually for the purpose of inducing immunity to the disease. [1913 Webster +PJC]
Note: The use was formerly limited to the intentional communication of the smallpox, but is now extended to include any similar introduction of modified virus; as, the inoculation of rabies by Pasteur. The organisms inoculated are usually an attentuated form of the disease-causing organism, which may multiply harmlessly in the body of the host, but induce immunity to the more virulent forms of the organism. [1913 Webster +PJC]
3. Fig.: The communication of principles, especially false principles, to the mind.
4. (Microbiology) The introduction of microorganisms into a growth medium, to cause the growth and multiplication of the microorganisms. [PJC]
All the volunteers will be rigorously screened to ensure that they haven't been exposed to the AIDS virus, and they will be asked to promise to avoid engaging in high-risk sexual behavior for three months after the inoculation.
The trouble with the Teen Disease is that it is mental rather than physical and there is no known inoculation against it.
But he noted that while several subjects remained virus free for two months after inoculation, he isn't making claims about the effectiveness of the therapy.
Some have suspected that his toughness on the gulf issue might be a form of political inoculation against a pre-invasion stand opposing sanctions on Iraq for using poison gas against its own citizens.
An outbreak of whooping cough has claimed the life of one infant in western New York's Amish community but has done little to break down the conservative Christian group's resistance to inoculation.
While Saxons and Franks fought over feudal Europe, scholars in Damascus, Cairo and Baghdad translated Aristotle, and Arab doctors developed an inoculation against smallpox.