The Collaborative International Dictionary
Putrescent \Pu*tres"cent\, a. [L. putrescens, p. pr.of putrescere to grow rotten, v. incho. fr. putrere to be rotten. See Putrid.]
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Becoming putrid or rotten.
Externally powerful, although putrescent at the core.
--Motley. Of or pertaining to the process of putrefaction; as, a putrescent smell.
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
1732, a back-formation from putrescence, or else from Latin putrescentem (nominative putrescens), present participle of putrescere "grow rotten, moulder, decay," inchoative of putrere "be rotten" (see putrid).
Wiktionary
a. becoming putrid; putrefying
WordNet
adj. becoming putrid; "a trail lined by putrescent carcasses"
Usage examples of "putrescent".
A small amount of putrescent matter habitually introduced into the system, as in the use of food, is productive of the most serious results, which can be traced to the direct action of the poison introduced.
At the same time, it checks the rapid disorganization of the tissues and their putrescent change, while it sustains the vital processes.
It will intercept those thin, watery discharges which are the result of weakness, degeneration, and putrescent decay of the blood, perpetuated by a low grade of scrofulous inflammation.
There was nothing funny about living like a bum in a tent in Pianosa between fat mountains behind him and a placid blue sea in front that could gulp down a person with a cramp in the twinkling of an eye and ship him back to shore three days later, all charges paid, bloated, blue and putrescent, water draining out through both cold nostrils.
The birches grew slowly, and after standing for five years on the unstable, putrescent soil, they dried up, fell down, and rotted away.
When a gangrenous wound needed washing, the limb was thrust out a little from the blanket, or board, or rags upon which the patient was lying, and water poured over it, and all the putrescent matter allowed to soak into the ground floor of the tent.
The spectacle of men with their feet and legs a mass of dry ulceration, which had reduced the flesh to putrescent deadness, and left the tendons standing out like cords, was too common to excite remark or even attention.
When you die your body will begin to rot, to putrefy, to bloat, and to transform itself into a mass of reeking and putrescent flesh.
For a day or two one noted an improvement, a sterile antiseptic balm, and then the mildew smell returned, putrescent and freshly incubated.
Any other man on the face of Toril might have at least hesitated before jumping into an open grave with two reeking, putrescent, flesh-gorged ghouls.
Medico-Chirurgical Association of London, January 25, 1870, there was an anosmic patient mentioned who was very fond of the bouquet of moselle, and Carter mentioned that he knew a man who had lost both the senses of taste and smell, but who claimed that he enjoyed putrescent meat.
The spectacle of men with their feet and legs a mass of dry ulceration, which had reduced the flesh to putrescent deadness, and left the tendons standing out like cords, was too common to excite remark or even attention.
My putrescent corpse is your interest-free capital, is that not so José.