''suppurate'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260904134559-00-⌔

suppurate - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Verb

suppurate (third-person singular simple present suppurates, present participle suppurating, simple past and past participle suppurated)

• (intransitive) To form or discharge pus.
  • ✤ Their suppurating wounds, their goitres, their tumours are hideously evident on their hairless bodies.¹
  • ✤ The only difference being Bezos was worth $60.7bn, while Bloodworth and his fellow “associates” walked back at midnight to fetid digs “with heavy legs supporting suppurating feet which over the course of the day had puffed up half a size bigger”.²
• (transitive) To cause to generate pus.
  • ✤ to suppurate a sore

Etymology

From Latin suppūrātus, past participle of suppūrō, from pūr-, stem of pūs.

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈsʌpjəreɪt/
• Audio (Southern England): 🔊

Printed 2026-09-04.

(echo:: @ ⌗)

Footnotes

1. 1952, Norman Lewis, Golden Earth: ↩

2. 2018 March 11, Nick Cohen, quoting James Bloodworth, “Hired: Six Months Undercover in Low-Wage Britain – review”, in The Guardian ‎${}^{[1]}$: ↩