carbuncle
Americannoun
-
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.
-
a gemstone, especially a garnet, cut with a convex back and a cabochon surface.
-
Also called London brown. a dark grayish, red-brown color.
-
Obsolete. any rounded red gem.
adjective
noun
-
an extensive skin eruption, similar to but larger than a boil, with several openings: caused by staphylococcal infection
-
a rounded gemstone, esp a garnet cut without facets
-
a dark reddish-greyish-brown colour
Other Word Forms
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; cf. 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 Carbuncle Awards are a way of bringing these places to attention and the problems that they face."
From BBC • Sep. 22, 2025
The Carbuncle Awards, run by architecture magazine Urban Realm, were inspired by a scathing comment about modern building design made by King Charles back in the 1980s.
From BBC • Sep. 22, 2025
The Carbuncle Cup, for the ugliest building of the year, was launched by Building Design magazine in 2006, "for crimes against architecture".
From The Guardian • May 21, 2013
One, Strata SE1, won the Carbuncle Cup for worst building of the year.
From The Guardian • Mar. 10, 2013
At nightfall, once in the olden time, on the rugged side of one of the Crystal Hills, a party of adventurers were refreshing themselves, after a toilsome and fruitless quest for the Great Carbuncle.
From From Twice Told Tales by Hawthorne, Nathaniel
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.
