from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
intransitive & transitive verb To decay or cause to decay and have a foul odor. synonym: decay.
from The Century Dictionary.
To render putrid; cause to decay with an offensive odor; cause to become fetid by rotting. See putrefaction.
To make carious or gangrenous.
To corrupt; make foul or offensive.
SynonymsDecay, Corrupt, etc. See rot.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
intransitive verb To become putrid; to decay offensively; to rot.
transitive verb To render putrid; to cause to decay offensively; to cause to be decomposed; to cause to rot.
transitive verb To corrupt; to make foul.
transitive verb To make morbid, carious, or gangrenous.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
verb To become filled with a pus-like or bile-like substance.
verb To reach an advanced stage of decomposition.
verb To become gangrenous.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
verb become putrid; decay with an offensive smell
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
[Middle English putrefien, from Old French putrefier, from Latin putrefacere : puter, putr-, rotten; see pū̆- in Indo-European roots + facere, to make; see dhē- in Indo-European roots.]
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Examples
* Dead bodies quickly putrefy and so become a health hazard to the living.
Soon enough, a patient may be able to remain on such apparatuses for many months, long after meaningful brain function has ceased, until his skin and tissue begins to putrefy.
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