suppurate

American  

[suhp-yuh-rayt] / ˈsʌp jəˌreɪt /

verb (used without object)

suppurated, suppurating

1. to produce or discharge pus, as a wound; maturate.

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suppurate British  

/ ˈsʌpjʊˌreɪt /

verb

1. (intr) pathol (of a wound, sore, etc) to discharge pus; fester

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Other Word Forms

• unsuppurated
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of suppurate

1555–65; < Latin suppūrātus (past participle of suppūrāre ), equivalent to sup- sup- + pūr- (stem of pūs ) pus + -ātus -ate ¹

Explanation

To suppurate is to get infected and form pus. If that scrape on your knee starts to suppurate, you might want to go to the doctor. In medicine, suppurate is the official term for what you might think of as "become gross and full of pus." Pimples sometimes become swollen and painful before they suppurate, and cuts and scrapes that get infected can also suppurate, oozing a thick, white substance. We can trace this word back to a root that means both "matter from a sore" and "bitterness or malice."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

suppurate suppurated suppurating

The swelling may gradually disappear or begin to suppurate.

From Prof. Koch's Method to Cure Tuberculosis Popularly Treated by Fr. (Friedrich) Brendecke

If the Fallopian tubes are involved, and this happens frequently, they suppurate, and often they must be removed by coeliotomy.

From Essays In Pastoral Medicine by Austin ?Malley

When the outer skin begins to suppurate, it should be removed with a pair of pincers, and the patch treated as an open wound.

From Special Report on Diseases of the Horse by Charles B. Michener

The testis in men is also liable to suppurate with great pain, long confinement, and much danger; and lastly the affection of the brain is fatal to many.

From Zoonomia, Vol. II Or, the Laws of Organic Life by Erasmus Darwin

The head swells to an enormous extent, becoming so heavy that the animal cannot support it, and therefore drags it along the ground; the ears suppurate.

From Austral English A dictionary of Australasian words, phrases and usages with those aboriginal-Australian and Maori words which have become incorporated in the language, and the commoner scientific words that have had their origin in Australasia by Edward Ellis Morris

The wound became infected, suppurated, and when a surgeon eventually removed a portion of his jaw, it left a deformed face and an angry, short-tempered man.

From BBC ● Nov. 25, 2015

The Tin Drum and Dog Years are masterpieces of comedy and verbal invention about the culture and history that suppurated as the Third Reich.

From Time Magazine Archive

At fourteen she was burned over her breasts by running against a shovelful of hot coals, and several months later small tumors appeared, which never suppurated.

From Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine by Walter L. (Walter Lytle) Pyle

Thirty or forty small electric shocks were passed through it once or twice a day for two or three weeks, and it then suppurated and healed without difficulty.

From Zoonomia, Vol. II Or, the Laws of Organic Life by Erasmus Darwin

The wounds suppurated locally, but at the end of six weeks fair union of the bone had taken place and the wound of exit had contracted to a sinus.

From Surgical Experiences in South Africa, 1899-1900 Being Mainly a Clinical Study of the Nature and Effects of Injuries Produced by Bullets of Small Calibre by George Henry Makins

All this comes before a close-up on a suppurating bedsore.

From Salon ● Oct. 4, 2024

It’s all very trippy, and sometimes morbidly funny, studded with fan-friendly gashes of body horror, most often by way of Beau’s own angry, suppurating wounds.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 19, 2023

The banter is believable, as are the pinpricks of disquiet and the weird suppurating wounds that increasingly mar this otherwise ordinary scene and its genial hero.

From New York Times ● Aug. 26, 2021

Nothing human is alien to it, not suppurating psychic wounds, and especially not bodily functions.

From The New Yorker ● Nov. 9, 2018

"I'll tell you what I'm talking about, you suppurating little blister!" the Trunchbull shouted.

From "Matilda" by Roald Dahl