gangrene
Americannoun
-
gangrenes
plural
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necrosis or death of soft tissue due to obstructed circulation, usually followed by decomposition and putrefaction.
-
moral or spiritual corruption and decadence that pervades an individual or group.
“This church body has been afflicted with a spiritual gangrene that is poisoning our relationship with the Lord,” the preacher expostulated.
- Synonyms:
- degeneracy, depravity, rot, decay
verb (used with or without object)
-
gangrenes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
gangrened,
past participle, past
-
gangrening
present participle
noun
-
death and decay of tissue as the result of interrupted blood supply, disease, or injury
-
moral decay or corruption
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
gangrenesimple
-
gangrenessimple
-
have gangrenedperfect
-
has gangrenedperfect
-
am gangreningprogressive
-
are gangreningprogressive
-
is gangreningprogressive
-
have been gangreningperfect progressive
-
has been gangreningperfect progressive
Past
-
gangrenedsimple
-
had gangrenedperfect
-
was gangreningprogressive
-
were gangreningprogressive
-
had been gangreningperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of gangrene
First recorded in 1535–45; from Middle French gangrene (earlier cancrene ), from Latin gangraena, from Greek gángraina “an eating sore”
Compare meaning
How does gangrene compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
Explanation
You don't want gangrene, that's for sure. It's the infection that can develop around a wound that kills the tissue, turning it into a terrible stinking sore. In the days before antibiotics even the smallest scratch could lead to gangrene, and doctors would often cut off a finger or even a limb and then seal it with a red hot poker rather than risk the infection spreading. Special surgeons known as sawbones were famed for the speed they could amputate a limb to avoid gangrene setting in. Enough to stop you ever being nostalgic about the good old days.
Vocabulary lists containing gangrene
The Things They Carried
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Salt to the Sea
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
He has consulted fellow Spaniard Santi Cazorla, who was sidelined for 636 days after gangrene ravaged his Achilles tendon, and takes inspiration from the former Arsenal midfielder's comeback.
From BBC ● Feb. 15, 2026
He learned to patch up injured men in below-deck sea cabins, where gangrene turned a wound black and rotten.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 6, 2026
Nursing employees told the investigators that the 69-year-old man, who had been admitted with gangrene on his feet, was often confused and sometimes tried to pull out his tubes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 20, 2025
By World War II, even as scientists were manufacturing gallons of phages to combat cholera, dysentery, and gangrene in Stalingrad and Leningrad, much the West had given up on phages.
From Salon ● Nov. 20, 2024
Time is supposed to heal all things, but time opened an emotional gangrene in Jerry.
From "The Hot Zone" by Richard Preston
Oftener than not it gangrenes, and there is loss of sound tissue and the setting-up of strange and malevolent growth.
From The Quickening by E. M. Ashe
Rochefoucault, who has torn the veil from so many foul gangrenes of the human heart, says, we find something not altogether unpleasant to us in the misfortunes of our best friends.
From The Heart of Mid-Lothian, Volume 1 by Sir Walter Scott
Fabricius takes the occasion to give a caution to young surgeons, to avoid being too sanguine in predicting recovery from gangrenes.
From North American Medical and Surgical Journal, Vol. 2, No. 3, July, 1826 by Franklin Bache
Simple ulcerations and small gangrenes, as well as the troublesome excoriation, when not in the last stage, yielded promptly to this remedy; the good effect being generally visible from the first application.
From North American Medical and Surgical Journal, Vol. 2, No. 3, July, 1826 by Franklin Bache
Crutches, and itches, and leprosies, and ulcers, and gangrenes, and running sores, praise ye the Lord, for to-night ye have saved our Archbishop! 1ST BEGGAR.
From Becket and other plays by Alfred Tennyson, Baron Tennyson
One man came limping in, unassisted, on a gangrened leg teeming with worms.
From "Kaffir Boy: An Autobiography" by Mark Mathabane
The doctors tell me that many slight wounds have gangrened owing to the cold.
From Diary of the Besieged Resident in Paris by Henry Labouchere
No surgeon could be procured at the time, and the wound appears to have gangrened and to have infected the whole arm.
From Tales of the Wonder Club, Volume II by Alexander Huth
The convention," said Robespierre, in his reply to the deputation, "in the situation in which it now stands, gangrened by corruption, and being wholly unable to recover itself, cannot save the republic-both must perish.
From History of the French Revolution from 1789 to 1814 by M. (François-Auguste-Marie-Alexis) Mignet
If you'd seen her and lived with her as I have, year out and year in, you'd know her love of money has eat into her soul and gangrened it.
From Flamsted quarries by G. Patrick Nelson
It drags upon me like a prisoner's gangrening fetter, and I'm getting tired of it.
From To-morrow? by Victoria Cross
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