Dictionary De - En
De - Es
De - Pt| English Dictionary: Virus | by the DICT Development Group |
| 4 results for Virus | |
| From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]: | |
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| From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: | |
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Virus \Vi"rus\, n. [L., a slimy liquid, a poisonous liquid, poison, stench; akin to Gr. [?] poison, Skr. visha. Cf. {Wizen}, v. i.] 1. (Med.) (a) Contagious or poisonous matter, as of specific ulcers, the bite of snakes, etc.; -- applied to organic poisons. (b) The special contagion, inappreciable to the senses and acting in exceedingly minute quantities, by which a disease is introduced into the organism and maintained there. Note: The specific virus of diseases is now regarded as a microscopic living vegetable organism which multiplies within the body, and, either by its own action or by the associated development of a chemical poison, causes the phenomena of the special disease. 2. Fig.: Any morbid corrupting quality in intellectual or moral conditions; something that poisons the mind or the soul; as, the virus of obscene books. | |
| From Jargon File (4.2.0, 31 JAN 2000) [jargon]: | |
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virus n. [from the obvious analogy with biological viruses, via SF] A cracker program that searches out other programs and `infects' them by embedding a copy of itself in them, so that they become {Trojan horse}s. When these programs are executed, the embedded virus is executed too, thus propagating the `infection'. This normally happens invisibly to the user. Unlike a {worm}, a virus cannot infect other computers without assistance. It is propagated by vectors such as humans trading programs with their friends (see {SEX}). The virus may do nothing but propagate itself and then allow the program to run normally. Usually, however, after propagating silently for a while, it starts doing things like writing cute messages on the terminal or playing strange tricks with the display (some viruses include nice {display hack}s). Many nasty viruses, written by particularly perversely minded {cracker}s, do irreversible damage, like nuking all the user's files. In the 1990s, viruses have become a serious problem, especially among Wintel and Macintosh users; the lack of security on these machines enables viruses to spread easily, even infecting the operating system (Unix machines, by contrast, are immune to such attacks). The production of special anti-virus software has become an industry, and a number of exaggerated media reports have caused outbreaks of near hysteria among users; many {luser}s tend to blame _everything_ that doesn't work as they had expected on virus attacks. Accordingly, this sense of `virus' has passed not only into techspeak but into also popular usage (where it is often incorrectly used to denote a {worm} or even a {Trojan horse}). See {phage}; compare {back door}; see also {Unix conspiracy}. | |
| From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (15Feb98) [foldoc]: | |
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virus program or piece of code written by a {cracker} that "infects" one or more other programs by embedding a copy of itself in them, so that they become {Trojan horses}. When these programs are executed, the embedded virus is executed too, thus propagating the "infection". This normally happens invisibly to the user. A virus has an "engine" - code that enables it to propagate and optionally a "payload" - what it does apart from propagating. It needs a "host" - the particular hardware and software environment on which it can run and a "trigger" - the event that starts it running. Unlike a {worm}, a virus cannot infect other computers without assistance. It is propagated by vectors such as humans trading programs with their friends (see {SEX}). The virus may do nothing but propagate itself and then allow the program to run normally. Usually, however, after propagating silently for a while, it starts doing things like writing "cute" messages on the terminal or playing strange tricks with the display (some viruses include {display hacks}). Viruses written by particularly antisocial {crackers} may do irreversible damage, like deleting files. By the 1990s, viruses had become a serious problem, especially among {IBM PC} and {Macintosh} users (the lack of security on these machines enables viruses to spread easily, even infecting the operating system). The production of special {antivirus software} has become an industry, and a number of exaggerated media reports have caused outbreaks of near hysteria among users. Many {lusers} tend to blame *everything* that doesn't work as they had expected on virus attacks. Accordingly, this sense of "virus" has passed into popular usage where it is often incorrectly used for a {worm} or {Trojan horse}. See {boot virus}, {phage}. Compare {back door}. See also {Unix conspiracy}. [{Jargon File}] (2003-06-20) | |
