Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Death and decay of body tissue, often occurring in a limb, caused by insufficient blood supply and usually following injury or disease.
- v. To affect or become affected with gangrene.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In pathology, a necrosis or mortification of soft tissues when the parts affected become dry, hard, and dark in color (dry gangrene or mummification), or when, remaining soft and moist, the parts fall a prey to septic organisms and undergo putrefaction (moist gangrene or sphacelus).
- n. In botany, a disease ending in putrid decay.
- To produce a gangrene in; mortify; hence, figuratively, to cause decay or destruction in.
- To become mortified.
Wiktionary
- n. The necrosis or rotting of flesh, usually caused by lack of blood supply.
- n. figuratively A damaging or corrupting influence.
- v. transitive To produce gangrene in.
- v. intransitive To be affected with gangrene.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Med.) A term formerly restricted to mortification of the soft tissues which has not advanced so far as to produce complete loss of vitality; but now applied to mortification of the soft parts in any stage.
- v. To produce gangrene in; to be affected with gangrene.
WordNet 3.0
- n. necrotic tissue; a mortified or gangrenous part or mass
- n. the localized death of living cells (as from infection or the interruption of blood supply)
- v. undergo necrosis
Etymologies
- From Latin gangraena ("gangrene"), from Ancient Greek γάγγραινα (gaggraina, "gangrene"), from γραίνειν (grainein, "gnaw"). (Wiktionary)
- Medieval Latin cancrēna, from Latin gangraena, gangrēna, from Greek gangraina. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“I agree with you that I don't go out of my way to find organic, "natural," (gangrene is natural, right?) or biodynamic wines.”
“Nobody will starve, get dysentery, get gangrene from a minor wound, or die of battle exhaustion.”
“The gangrene is very high up in my leg and the open thigh wound wasn't getting better.”
“Dr. Rabinowitch examined him and his foot was black with gangrene from the ankle down.”
“The etymology of gangrene derives from the Latin word "gangraena" and from the Greek gangraina, which means "putrefaction of tissues".”
“Because this being all our hope, against this point did the devil make a vehement stand, and at one time he was wholly subverting it, at another his word was that it was "past already;" which also Paul writing to Timothy called a gangrene, I mean, this wicked doctrine, and those that brought it in he branded, saying,”
NPNF1-12. Saint Chrysostom: Homilies on the Epistles of Paul to the Corinthians
“In his opinion the true cause of the alteration of the cauliflower is the humid gangrene, that is to say, a gummy degeneration and putrid fermentation of the tissues, caused by the abundance of manure in the soil and the excess of water in the plant at a time when it is subject to sudden changes of temperature.”
“These effects are not merely negative: though it would be much, merely to check the farther progress of a gangrene, which is eating out the very vital principles of our social and political existence.”
“This type of gangrene occurs when blood flow to an internal organ is blocked.”
“On May 31 the femoral artery was ligatured just above its communication with the vein, and as this stopped all pulsation in the vein, it was decided to postpone ligature of the latter to a subsequent occasion, if it should ever be necessary; such a procedure would, it was thought, interfere less with the circulation of the limb, and would therefore be less likely to be followed by gangrene, which is so frequent a result of high ligature of the femoral.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘gangrene’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Words that shouldn't be used on a fir...
probation, trekkie, wart, unemployed, fetish, suspended driver'..., felon, aerophagia, undies, debt collector, girlfriend, boyfriend and 272 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Mandles, Candles for Men
candles with a "manly" scent
a1 steak sauce, baseball glove, grillin' out, campfire, pigskin, bowling alley, musty locker room, chuck norris sweat, urinal deodorizer, bait shop, wet dog, hardware store and 210 more...
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Behold, The Potato
All things potato. History, foodways and potato recipe names, cultivar or variety names, farming, production, diseases and pests, folklore.
spud, tater, starchy, tuberous, <i>Solanum tubero..., <i>Phytophthora i..., potato blight, late blight, blight, Ireland, Irish potato, lumper and 331 more...
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Morbid Curiosity: Words You Should Be...
This has the potential to be the scariest list on Wordie.
merkin, meat, shingles, vomit, goiter, incision, abattoir, erysipelas, ebola, maggot, blood, episiotomy and 51 more...
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Snarl words
Please add one purr word (<-- on that list over there, not this one) for every snarl word, so as to maintain equilibrium.
Please put snarl words here, and purr words in the other pl...chainsaw, hack, macheted, kitten, grout, hashtag, gangrene, riptide, bacchanal, ragnarok, deglove, rasp and 9 more...
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wakcy's Words
apocalypse, interlude, drome, absolution, atrocity, ruse, pristine, mason, reparable, deteriorate, pyramid, hipster and 283 more...
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the first list
an immense, grandiloquent list that loads like a thousand years sentence in stone. new words are in the other lists.
ridiculous, brummagem, predicament, sanctimonious, vapid, eschew, admonish, auspicious, capitulation, enumerate, lachrymose, tenet and 1648 more...
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ChortleGiggleSnort
Significant Words- Guiding you on your path to Snazzibility
flimsy, feeble, ranting, ramble, narky, snazzy, yoghurt, bulbous, pustule, globulous, geranium, megalomaniac and 521 more...
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wanderstar's Words
superlative, mulish, mumps, catatonic, aquiline, clandestine, phantasmagoria, chryselephantine, microfiche, mutineer, reprobate, ruthless and 312 more...
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dienekes's Words
chutzpah, lexicon, intrepid, pedagogical, schlemiel, schism, erudite, anathema, pugilist, jaunty, paradigm, automaton and 949 more...
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5-0
Hecko, words! I’m so happy I’ve found you. I want to keep you all and never want to lose you again. I hope you like it here.
amscray, thistledown, tine, tinsel, pungent, snarl, wail, lanky, viscid, dawdle, luminous, stow and 2719 more...
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thricedotted's Words
schadenfreude, vanquish, calumny, obsequious, rhapsody, expostulate, promontory, bordello, quintessence, catharsis, recapitulation, myriad and 937 more...
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Words suggested in response to Funk's...
In response to Wilfred J. Funk's "ten most beautiful words in the English language" list of 1932.
beer, rum, rye, sauterne, sherry, brandy, bourbon, Scotch, champagne, cocktail, lyric, serenity and 137 more...
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ash
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abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abide, abject, abjure and 4874 more...
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