Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To form or discharge pus.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To produce pus: as, a wound suppurates.
  • To produce (pus).

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To generate pus.
  • transitive verb To cause to generate pus.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb intransitive To form or discharge pus.
  • verb transitive To cause to generate pus.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb cause to ripen and discharge pus
  • verb ripen and generate pus

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English suppuraten, from Latin suppūrāre, suppūrāt- : sub-, sub- + pūs, pūr-, pus; see pū̆- in Indo-European roots.]

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word suppurate.

Examples

  • Even a small nick in the skin, treated thus, could quickly suppurate into a lethal infection.

    The Emperor of All Maladies Siddhartha Mukherjee 2010

  • Even a small nick in the skin, treated thus, could quickly suppurate into a lethal infection.

    The Emperor of All Maladies Siddhartha Mukherjee 2010

  • Even a small nick in the skin, treated thus, could quickly suppurate into a lethal infection.

    The Emperor of All Maladies Siddhartha Mukherjee 2010

  • Scot, "Evans is the chief anxiety right now; his cuts and wounds suppurate, his nose looks very bad, and altogether he shows considerable signs of being played out."

    Chronology of Amundsen and Scott Expeditions 2009

  • I always enjoy the comments more when I have to look up words but I might have been able to get through the day without knowing the definition of suppurate.

    The Indignity of Commuting by Bicycle: The Spring Classics BikeSnobNYC 2009

  • All I get are these sores in my soft palate that suppurate profusely.

    The Indignity of Commuting by Bicycle: The Spring Classics BikeSnobNYC 2009

  • She doesn't know what's in her, what worm or parasite causes her to suppurate like this, part of her pancreas, part of her bowel; there's that moment of hesitation, that meniscoid pause in the process of boiling up, before it swells over the lip of the toilet -

    Rick Moody: The Diviners (Excerpt) 2008

  • But the wound should be made to suppurate as quickly as possible; for, thus the parts surrounding the wound would be the least disposed to inflammation, and would become the soonest clean; for the flesh which has been chopped and bruised by the blow, must necessarily suppurate and slough away.

    On Injuries Of The Head 2007

  • And the flesh will shoot up and grow below the more quickly, and the pieces of bone ascend, if one will get the wound to suppurate and make it clean as quickly as possible.

    On Injuries Of The Head 2007

  • If a thrombus be formed in the opening, it will inflame and suppurate.

    On Ulcers 2007

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • The open bedsores suppurate and stink...

    I am abusive to a social worker.

    - Peter Reading, C, 1984

    July 4, 2008

  • Higgins used this word in Master And Commander when he was talking about the doctor's gunshot wound after Mr. Howard accidentally shot him when he was trying to shoot a seagull and the bullet took in a piece of shirt with it.

    May 29, 2012