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

The swelling may gradually disappear or begin to suppurate.

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

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

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 Charles B. Michener

Quitter, kwit′ėr, n. a fistulous sore on the quarters or the heel of the coronet of a horse's hoof.—v.i. to suppurate.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 3 of 4: N-R) by Various

Scrophulous tumours are sometimes absorbed, and sometimes brought to suppurate by passing electric shocks through them daily for two or three weeks.

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

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

A mucous discharge from the anus, called by some white piles, or matter from a suppurated pile, has been mistaken for the matter from a concealed fistula.

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

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 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

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

From Salon ● Oct. 4, 2024

This caused the president to serve the national-champion Clemson football team an enormous pile of suppurating hamburgers but, otherwise, America got through it okay.

From Washington Post ● Dec. 27, 2019

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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