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What is "fester"

Crossword clues for fester

fester
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
fester
verb
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Disputes between environmentalists and loggers have been festering for decades.
▪ The animal parts were allowed to fester in the hot sun.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A festering inflammation on his foot kept him from joining the Capuchin order.
▪ Deep in the interstices of daily life, no doubt, frustrations gnawed at him and resentments festered.
▪ Gone too are sources of social difficulty, human reminders of festering disagreements and failed love affairs.
▪ It was clear to everyone that it would only aggravate the festering wound.
▪ Our eyes joined across the metres of festering carpet.
▪ The insider-trading case also revisits a long festering controversy.
▪ The school toilet was a festering, diseased shed at the ravine's edge.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Fester

Fester \Fes"ter\, n. [OF. festre, L. fistula a sort of ulcer. Cf. Fistula.]

  1. A small sore which becomes inflamed and discharges corrupt matter; a pustule.

  2. A festering or rankling.

    The fester of the chain their necks.
    --I. Taylor.

Fester

Fester \Fes"ter\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Festered; p. pr. & vb. n. Festering.] [OE. festern, fr. fester, n.; or fr. OF. festrir, fr. festre, n. See Fester, n.]

  1. To generate pus; to become imflamed and suppurate; as, a sore or a wound festers.

    Wounds immedicable Rankle, and fester, and gangrene.
    --Milton.

    Unkindness may give a wound that shall bleed and smart, but it is treachery that makes it fester.
    --South.

    Hatred . . . festered in the hearts of the children of the soil.
    --Macaulay.

  2. To be inflamed; to grow virulent, or malignant; to grow in intensity; to rankle.

Fester

Fester \Fes`ter\, v. t. To cause to fester or rankle.

For which I burnt in inward, swelt'ring hate, And festered ranking malice in my breast.
--Marston.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
fester

late 14c., of wounds, "to become ulcerous, suppurate," from festre (n.) "a fistula" (c.1300), or from Old French verb festrir "ulcerate, fester," from festre (n.) "small sore discharging pus." The nouns in Old French and Middle English both are from Latin fistula "pipe, ulcer" (see fistula). Related: Festered; festering; festerment.

Wiktionary
fester

vb. 1 To become septic; to become rotten. 2 To worsen, especially due to lack of attention. 3 To cause to fester or rankle.

WordNet
fester

  1. n. a sore that has become inflamed and formed pus [syn: suppurating sore]

  2. v. ripen and generate pus; "her wounds are festering" [syn: maturate, suppurate]

Wikipedia
Fester

Fester or Fester's may refer to:

  • Fester Hollow, a tributary of the West Branch Briar Creek in Columbia County, Pennsylvania
  • Fester Kun Med Mig Selv, a single by Danish singer Jon Nørgaard
  • Uncle Fester, or Fester Addams, a member of the fictional Addams Family
  • Uncle Fester (author), the nom de plume of Steve Preisler, author
  • Fester's Quest, a video game

Usage examples of "fester".

It was to Migel that Helen appealed in the festering dispute between Bob Barnett and Eric Boulter over the respective roles of the AFB and the AFOB.

The ceilidh was being held in a barnlike shack falling to rack and ruin down in the midst of the mangrove swamps festering about the mouth of the Dungloe River.

Why were there no words that would unlock what lay festering in the heart of Rowdy Dick Doolan, who needed so desperately to express what he could never even know needed expression?

Even if the poor wretches survived the tribulation, they could die if the wound festered, or be left maimed for life.

King Danube will find his strength in Duke Kalas and in the others who have been his supporters since before Jilseponie, since before the demon dactyl and the misery that has festered in the kingdom and in the Abellican Church.

Everywhere it touched, the skin festered and burst into red-black sores of diseased corruption.

He was a mite of a boy, nothing but skin-covered bones, his burned, freckled face in a mortar of tears and dust, his clothing unspeakably dirty, one great toe in a festering mass from a broken nail, and sores all over the visible portions of the small body.

A great festering wound, a gumma, had eaten away most of her nose and turned it into an open snout.

They make all manner of things from this naphtha, even some odd salves that keep wounds from festering, but one thing theyve found is the secret of making Quegan fire.

Having nurtured a festering resentment for this particular nobleman well before their introduction, Roger was as unwilling to accept the proffered hand as the man had been reluctant to extend it, but in so doing, he suffered a measurable shock as the long fingers closed about his own hand.

Those California goddamned clowns, both smelling of patchouli oil, and cheap sweet wine, and an angry festering vindictiveness.

She has sniffed the aroma of festering emotions and now she moves in to tweeze and scrape and dig.

With another beat of her festering wings, Umrae hopped and closed the distance.

Tim down because otherwise the guilt would fester like an unlanced boil for years.

He helped the physicians with binding woundwort and other medicinal herbs, including some mosses and clay, around open cuts to stop them festering.