putrefy — English Dictionary

Verb

1. To fester or rot and exude a fetid stench.

2. To become filled with a pus-like or bile-like substance.

3. To reach an advanced stage of decomposition.

   Examples

   More examples (1)

   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.

4. To become gangrenous.

5. To make morbid, carious, or gangrenous.

   Examples

   to putrefy an ulcer or wound

6. To corrupt; to make foul.

   Examples

   Private suits do putrefy the public good.

   They would but stink, and putrefy the air.

Verb

1. become putrid; decay with an offensive smell

   Broader terms

   decay

   Examples

   organic matter putrefies