suppurate
Americanverb (used without object)
verb
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."
Vocabulary lists containing suppurate
Beowulf
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Matilda
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Novel Study: Beowulf (trans. Seamus Heaney), Lines 1905–3182
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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 Pustules appear, grow large, suppurate and attain their Maturity, without confining the Patient to his Bed, or lessening either his Sleep, or Appetite.
From Advice to the people in general, with regard to their health by Tissot, S. A. D. (Samuel Auguste David)
Scrofula, skrof′ū-la, n. a disease with chronic swellings of the glands in various parts of the body, esp. the neck, tending to suppurate: the king's evil.—adjs.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 4 of 4: S-Z and supplements) by Various
These sores, especially when deep, suppurate freely, and if there are no complications they tend to heal rapidly as soon as the degenerated tissue has softened and is entirely removed.
From Special Report on Diseases of the Horse by Michener, Charles B.
After a wound begins to suppurate it does little good to put antiseptics into it, as they cause considerable irritation, and under no circumstances do they put an end to the pus formation.
From Health on the Farm A Manual of Rural Sanitation and Hygiene by Harris, H. F. (Henry Fauntleroy)
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
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.
