suppurate

/ˌsʌpjəˈreɪt/

Other forms: suppurating; suppurated; suppurates

To suppurate is to get infected and form pus. If that scrape on your knee starts to suppurate, you might want to go to the doctor.

In medicine, suppurate is the official term for what you might think of as "become gross and full of pus." Pimples sometimes become swollen and painful before they suppurate, and cuts and scrapes that get infected can also suppurate, oozing a thick, white substance. We can trace this word back to a root that means both "matter from a sore" and "bitterness or malice."

Definitions of suppurate

1. verb

   cause to ripen and discharge pus
   “The oil suppurates the pustules”

   synonyms: mature

   fester, maturate

   ripen and generate pus

   type of:

   draw

   cause to localize at one point
2. verb

   ripen and generate pus
   synonyms: fester, maturate

   mature

   cause to ripen and discharge pus

   type of:

   discharge, eject, exhaust, expel, release

   eliminate (a substance)