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

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Etymology

Origin of suppurate

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

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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

There is usually some degree of fever, and the glands behind the angle of the jaw are enlarged and tender and may suppurate and set up cellulitis.

From Manual of Surgery Volume Second: Extremities—Head—Neck. Sixth Edition. by Alexander Miles

Supp′urātive, tending to suppurate: promoting suppuration.—n. a medicine which promotes suppuration.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 4 of 4: S-Z and supplements) by Various

The absorbed fluids in their course to the veins in the scrophula are arrested in the lymphatic or conglobate glands; which swell, and after a great length of time, inflame and suppurate.

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

Soon slight cracks appear transversely, and may gain in depth and width, and may even suppurate.

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

If the injury is continuously repeated, the horn becomes altered in character and the soft tissues may suppurate or a horny tumor develop.

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

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

The proof taken in the case establishes that before enlistment the beneficiary had a sore on his leg which was quite troublesome, which suppurated, and after healing would break out again.

From A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents Volume 8, part 3: Grover Cleveland, First Term by James D. (James Daniel) Richardson

In conclusion I will only make the further remark, that shell wounds, with the exception of clean leaden shrapnel tracks, always suppurated.

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

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

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

From Salon ● Oct. 4, 2024

When, despite surgery, a suppurating ear infection spread into his brain, he died at age 46, on Nov. 30, 1900, as a new century was about to dawn.

From Washington Post ● Oct. 12, 2021

She understood better than most the suppurating sores beneath the skin of American life.

From New York Times ● Aug. 6, 2019

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

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