putrefy

English · Thesaurus

AI In plain words

Writing a short explanation…

Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.

putrefy

/ˈpjutɹəfaɪ/

Where it comes from

From Middle French putréfier.

verb putrefies · putrefying · putrefied · putrify

To fester or rot and exude a fetid stench.
To become filled with a pus-like or bile-like substance.
To reach an advanced stage of decomposition. In the Middle Ages, for instance, a recipe for sex stimulation required the putrefied flesh of a human corpse, together with both human and animal testes and ovaries, pimento, and alcohol.
To become gangrenous.
To make morbid, carious, or gangrenous. to putrefy an ulcer or wound
To corrupt; to make foul. Private suits do putrefy the public good.

Similar: decay, fester, rot

Thesaurus

verb

Similar: decay, fester, rot

Talk about this word

Cite this

MLA

"putrefy." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/putrefy. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

putrefy. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/putrefy

Chicago

"putrefy." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/putrefy.

BibTeX

@misc{putrefy_2026,
  title = {putrefy},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/putrefy},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}