suppurate

American  

[suhp-yuh-reyt] / 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

Some of them seemed to be simply swollen red blood corpuscles, ready to burst, or as it were, suppurate.

From Report on Surgery to the Santa Clara County Medical Society by Joseph Bradford Cox

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

A milder form occurs, in which the main incidence is on the periosteum; the symptoms are less severe, it does not tend to suppurate, and is usually recovered from.

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

The inflamed bursa, which sometimes communicates with the joint, may suppurate, and the infection may spread to the joint.

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

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 glands enlarged twelve hours after the fever began, and sometimes suppurated in nonfatal cases in a short time.

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

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

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

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

He spent almost two years lying on his stomach, while his back was suppurating with infections.

From Washington Post ● Sep. 2, 2017

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

From "Matilda" by Roald Dahl