pus

[ puhs ]

noun

1. a yellow-white, more or less viscid substance produced by suppuration and found in abscesses, sores, etc., consisting of a liquid plasma in which white blood cells are suspended.

pus

/ pʌs /

noun

1. the yellow or greenish fluid product of inflammation, composed largely of dead leucocytes, exuded plasma, and liquefied tissue cells

pus

/ pŭs /

1. A thick, yellowish-white liquid that forms in infected body tissues, consisting of white blood cells, dead tissue, and cellular debris.

Other Words From

• puslike adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of pus¹

1535–45; < Latin; akin to Greek pýon pus. See pyo-

Word History and Origins

Origin of pus¹

C16: from Latin pūs; related to Greek puon pus

Example Sentences

Infection can last two to four weeks, and monkeypox can spread when viral material from pus makes contact with open wounds, or through short-lived respiratory droplets.

From Popular-Science

With inoculation, pus from an infected person was gathered, either in a small vial or by passing a string through one of the sores, and then passed through an open cut in a healthy subject.

From Washington Post

However, because every person at that time had an understanding of the power of disease, unprotected troops engaged in desperate attempts at home self-innoculations using pus from the oozing sores of infected friends and neighbors.

From Time

In some cases people inhaled the dried scabs of smallpox lesions or rubbed or injected pus from smallpox lesions into a healthy person’s scratched skin.

From Science News

Variolation was often done using pus from an infected person’s pox that doctors inserted into a cut.

From Popular-Science

Swelling, pus, the whole shebang; an angry reaction that lasted weeks.

From The Daily Beast

Various scratches and cuts line her arms and face; a pus-filled abscess burns on her right arm.

From The Daily Beast

At that point, Tyson had become a scavenger spewing bile and pus.

From The Daily Beast

It is thinner than that of chronic bronchitis, and upon standing separates into three layers of pus, mucus, and frothy serum.

From Project Gutenberg

When at all abundant, pus forms a white sediment resembling amorphous phosphates macroscopically.

From Project Gutenberg

Pus-casts may appear if the process extends up into the kidney tubules (see Fig. 62).

From Project Gutenberg

In suppurations of the urinary tract pus-producing organisms may be found.

From Project Gutenberg

On the other hand, except in children, where the percentage is normally low, pus is uncommon with less than 80 per cent.

From Project Gutenberg