(kwor'ăn-tēn‵ )

[It. quarantina, 40 days (of isolation for a ship entering a port)]

1. A period of enforced detention or isolation, during which free entry to a country by humans, animals, plants, agricultural products, equipment, etc., is prohibited in order to limit the spread of a potentially infectious disease. The period originally lasted for 40 days; nowadays, the period of detention is typically equal to the longest known incubation period of the disease.
2. The rules and regulations of a government or port authority governing quarantine.
3. A place of quarantine or the condition of being quarantined.