carbuncle
Americannoun
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Pathology. a painful circumscribed inflammation of the subcutaneous tissue, resulting in suppuration and sloughing, and having a tendency to spread somewhat like a boil, but more serious in its effects.
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a gemstone, especially a garnet, cut with a convex back and a cabochon surface.
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Also called London brown. a dark grayish, red-brown color.
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Obsolete. any rounded red gem.
adjective
noun
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an extensive skin eruption, similar to but larger than a boil, with several openings: caused by staphylococcal infection
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a rounded gemstone, esp a garnet cut without facets
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a dark reddish-greyish-brown colour
Other Word Forms
- carbuncled adjective
- carbuncular adjective
Etymology
Origin of carbuncle
1150–1200; Middle English < Anglo-French < Latin carbunculus kind of precious stone, tumor, literally, live coal, equivalent to carbōn- (stem of carbō ) burning charcoal + -culus -cule 1, apparently assimilated to derivates from short-vowel stems; homunculus
Vocabulary lists containing carbuncle
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.
The then Prince of Wales described a proposed extension of London's National Gallery as a "monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend".
From BBC • Sep. 22, 2025
He disdained a proposed addition to London’s National Gallery as “a monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend.”
From Washington Post • May 2, 2023
The drama, in their view, is nothing less than a monstrous carbuncle on the face of British society.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 8, 2022
In 1984, he famously ridiculed a proposed extension to the National Gallery as a “monstrous carbuncle on the face of a much-loved and elegant friend.”
From New York Times • Sep. 8, 2022
He had a developing carbuncle on the back of his neck and the skin from the inside of an eggshell stretched over it to draw it to a head.
From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
