putrescent
Americanadjective
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becoming putrid; undergoing putrefaction.
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of or relating to putrefaction.
adjective
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becoming putrid; rotting
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characterized by or undergoing putrefaction
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of putrescent
1725–35; < Latin putrēscent- (stem of putrēscēns ), present participle of putrēscere to grow rotten
Explanation
Something that's putrescent has begun to decompose or rot, like the putrescent remains of the broccoli at the very back of the vegetable drawer in your refrigerator. Ew! When things are putrescent, they're starting to become putrid — rotten and stinky. Everything that decomposes eventually becomes putrescent, from the remains of your lunch in your locker to the dead fish on a beach after a big storm at sea. This colorful way to say "spoiled" or "rancid" comes from the Latin putrere, "to rot," and its root, putris, "rotten or crumbling."
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 pinkish, putrescent, rurally located lagoons have been a source of concern for decades.
From The New Yorker ● Sep. 30, 2018
Emily Browning, who embodies Dead Wife Laura Moon as both ferociously loyal and frustratingly troubled, didn’t either – but we'd like to give her the most fly-attracting, putrescent prize we can imagine this year.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 17, 2017
He will expound on the archaic waste-disposal operations that once flourished on the creek, conjuring scenes of putrescent horse carcasses floating in on barges from Manhattan and docks piled with manure three stories high.
From New York Times ● Jun. 16, 2012
The Baldwin supporters having gained a strategic position by the voting booths were attacked with 60,000 putrescent eggs, countless heads of codfish, and soft rotten fruit.
From Time Magazine Archive
I have twice given water saturated with fixed air in a fever of the putrescent kind, and it agreed very well with the patients.
From Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air by Joseph Priestley
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.
