▪ I. immune, a. (n.)
(ɪˈmjuːn)
[ad. L. immūn-is exempt from a public service, burden, or charge, free, exempt, f. im- (im-2) + mūnis ready to be of service, mūnus service, duty; cf. obs. F. immune ‘exempt, free, priviledged, discharged from’ (Cotgr. 1611).
Found in the general sense from 15th to 17th c. Reintroduced c 1880 (perh. from Fr. or Ger. use) in connexion with the investigation of the nature of infectious diseases and their prevention by inoculation and the like.]
1. Free (from some liability); exempt. Obs. in general sense since 17th c.
| c 1420 Pallad. on Husb. vi. 237 O Sone of God..of synys drope or fraude immuyn. 1653 E. Chisenhale Cath. Hist. 263 These Provincials were free and immune without appealing to the See of Rome. 1658 J. Robinson Eudoxa ix. 48 The Cochlearia..will not abide the French Air, (which is immune from it). |
2. a. spec. Having immunity from hurtful bodily influences, as the influence of poison, the contagion of infectious diseases, and the like,
esp. when rendered so by inoculation, etc. (
Cf. immunize.) Also
transf. and
fig., wholly protected
from something injurious or distasteful; not susceptible or responsive
to something.
| 1881 Local Govt. Board, Rep. Medical Officer 200 Pasteur further states that the animals inoculated with the mitigated virus remain immune against further attacks of anthrax. 1888 F. P. Cobbe in Fortn. Rev. Feb. 226 But (to use the new medical barbarism) we are never ‘immune’ altogether from the contagion. 1888 E. R. Lankester in Watts' Dict. Chem. s.v. Bacteria, An animal which had survived an attack of the virulent B. anthracis was thereby rendered ‘immune’ to subsequent attacks, just as one attack of small-pox renders its survivor ‘immune’ in regard to that disease. 1891 Woodhead Bacteria 372 He was able by inoculation to render an animal immune to the action of the more virulent anthrax bacillus. 1894 Sat. Rev. 17 Nov. 529 The new serum has the power..of rendering those who surround the patient immune from the poison. 1898 Times 25 Aug. 5/1 They had not been able to render animals immune from the attacks of the parasites. 1898 Mercier in Brit. Med. Jrnl. 3 Sept. 586/1 There is for every insane person a certain sphere of conduct for which he ought to be entirely immune from punishment. 1900 Daily News 5 July 3/2 A man whose achievements should render him immune from all mud throwing. 1922 D. H. Lawrence England, my England 235 Among the graves, she felt immune from the world. 1944 A. Holmes Princ. Physical Geol. xvii. 367 No place can be regarded as permanently immune from shocks. 1947 Jrnl. R. Aeronaut. Soc. LI. 293 Ice guards..proved of considerable value during the war when used on aircraft which themselves were not completely immune from icing. 1955 Sci. Amer. June 96/3 The magnetic-core memory..is relatively immune to unwanted electrical disturbances. 1973 Human World Feb. 8 The vision of the future that is to carry them through is the high-rise block of flats, the motorway... And if the ‘underprivileged’ prove immune to sense and prosperity? Well, thinks Mr Maddox, they can't. 1973 Sci. Amer. Feb. 83/1 The system is extremely complicated and therefore would be rather expensive and not as reliable or immune to functional failure as one would like. 1973 Daily Tel. 7 Mar. 18 Orwell was a bad poet and immune to the arts (though a most likeable man). 1974 Ibid. 16 Feb. 9/1 The white pawns are immune from Black's bishop. |
b. as
n. An immune individual.
| 1898 Westm. Gaz. 29 Apr. 7/1 Regiments (mainly composed of negroes from the Southern States and other yellow fever immunes). 1909 Rep. Brit. Assoc. Adv. Sci. 764 All extracted immunes [sc. wheat plants immune to yellow rust] should breed true to this feature. 1951 Whitby & Hynes Med. Bacteriol. (ed. 5) viii. 105 After an epidemic the community remains free from that disease until the proportion of immunes declines and the density of susceptibles is once more raised to pre-epidemic level. |
3. Med. a. (Only in
attrib. use.) Relating to immunity or its development; serving to bring immunity about.
| 1907 Muir & Ritchie Man. Bacteriol. (ed. 4) xix. 484 Various substances..remove the opsonic property from a normal serum, while they have no effect on an immune-opsonin. 1928 L. E. H. Whitby Med. Bacteriol. ii. 19 The immune substances produced by the animal are termed antibodies. 1946 K. Landsteiner Specificity Serological Reactions (rev. ed.) i. 4 The immune antibodies..react as a rule only with the antigens that were used for immunizing and with closely similar ones. 1953 S. Raffel Immunity iv. 40 (heading) Mechanisms of acquired immunity. Antibody as a specific immune mechanism. 1969 Times 24 Mar. 4/7 Antilymphocytic serum..combats the particular immune defence mechanism responsible for rejecting tissue grafts. |
b. Specific collocations:
immune body = antibody;
immune globulin, (
a) a preparation containing antibodies obtained from normal individuals or from ones immunized against a specific disease, and suitable for use as an antiserum; (
b)
= immunoglobulin;
immune response, the reaction of the body to the introduction into it of an antigen;
immune serum, serum which contains antibodies,
esp. one which can confer immunity to the corresponding antigen on a recipient;
= anti-serum b;
immune system, the part of the body's make-up and functioning responsible for producing an immune response and maintaining immunity.
| 1899 Muir & Ritchie Man. Bacteriol. (ed. 2) xix. 485 Ehrlich has recently applied his theory of antitoxines to the lysogenic action of sera towards bacteria and red corpuscles... His observations show that the body specially developed in the blood of the animal treated—the ‘*immune-body’, enters into firm combination with the red corpuscles. 1900 P. Ehrlich in Proc. R. Soc. LXVI. 443, I have sought..to make clear the mechanism concerned in the action of these two components—the stable, which may be designated ‘immune body’, and the unstable, which may be designated ‘complement’—which, acting together, effect the solution of the red blood corpuscles. 1937 Immune body [see amboceptor]. 1971 Herbert & Wilkinson Dict. Immunol. 91 Immune body, obsolete synonym for antibody. |
| 1935 Jrnl. Amer. Med. Assoc. 17 Aug. 493/1 The use of *Immune Globulin (Human) in the modification of measles has been known for a considerable period. 1948 H. J. Parish Bacterial & Virus Dis. ix. 67 Placental extract or ‘human immune globulin’ is an extract of placental globulins and has approximately the same potency as adult serum. 1958 ― Antisera, Toxoids, Vaccines & Tuberculins (ed. 4) ix. 78 Large pools of adult plasma normally contain a variety of protective antibodies..located mainly in the gamma fraction of the globulin or, as it is sometimes called, the immune globulin. 1966 Lancet 24 Dec. 1403/2 A technique of immunodiffusion of serum through agar gave a sensitive and fairly accurate measure of the concentrations of the three main classes of immune globulins—γ G, γ M, and γ A. |
| 1953 Jrnl. Nat. Cancer Inst. XIV. 755 The over-all pattern presented is one of interference with an *immune response of the host. 1963 Gell & Coombs Clin. Aspects Immunol. i. 5 Before we can understand much about ‘immune’ responses and their results, protective or damaging, on the host, we need to know more about the separation of antibody responses from the ‘cellular’ responses which result in delayed (non-antibody dependent) sensitivity. 1964 New Scientist 1 Oct. 10/2 The ‘immune response’ is an important feature of a vertebrate animal's defence mechanism. |
| 1902 R. T. Hewlett Man. Bacteriol. (ed. 2) v. 140 For the lysis of a given quantity of bacteria a certain amount of *immune serum is necessary. 1946 K. Landsteiner Specificity Serological Reactions (rev. ed.) i. 7 Sera that contain antibodies as the result of the injection of antigens are called ‘immune sera’ (antisera). 1955 Sci. Amer. Mar. 65/2 In experimental work, antibody, or what is known as immune serum, is produced by injecting virus into an animal. 1970 Gold & Peacock Basic Immunol. vii. 247 Chiefly noted in man in connexion with immune serum therapy, serum sickness has also been widely studied as an experimental disease in laboratory animals. |
| 1955 Internat. Arch. Allergy & Appl. Immunol. VII. 5 With the protein *immune systems, the weight of antigen injected intravenously corresponded..to one-half the amount of antibody. 1965 N.Y. Times 24 Oct. iv. 8/3 Enlisting the body's own natural defense mechanisms—primarily the immune system—to fight cancer is one approach. 1970 Ann. Rev. Microbiol. XXIV. 534 Virus infections can profoundly affect the functional capacity of the immune system. 1984 J. F. Lamb et al. Essent. Physiol. (ed. 2) iv. 76 The immune system identifies invaders, switches itself on, generates defenders armed specifically to deal with whatever invaders are around, kills them and switches itself off before the body is unduly harmed. 1986 Daily Tel. 16 Sept. 11/1 These young women have a 10 to 30 per cent chance of developing the disease [sc. Aids], which kills by destroying the immune system thus exposing sufferers to a variety of lethal infections. |
▪ II. iˈmmune, v. rare.
[f. the adj.] trans. To render immune.
| 1849 G. S. Faber Let. 16 May in R. Chapman Father Faber (1961) xi. 220, I think if a little experience does not immune me to the row..I must go to the back. 1928 Hardy Coll. Poems 431 The vision That immuned me from the chillings of misprision. |