putrify
putrify is the alternative spelling of putrefy.
Meaning of putrefy
Verb
putrefy (third-person singular simple present putrefies, present participle putrefying, simple past and past participle putrefied)
- To fester or rot and exude a fetid stench.
- To become filled with a pus-like or bile-like substance.
- To reach an advanced stage of decomposition.
- In the Middle Ages, for instance, a recipe for sex stimulation required the putrefied flesh of a human corpse, together with both human and animal testes and ovaries, pimento, and alcohol.1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 14
- To become gangrenous.
- To make morbid, carious, or gangrenous.
- to putrefy an ulcer or wound
- To corrupt; to make foul.
- Private suits do putrefy the public good.1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Suitors”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC
Forms of putrify
| third-person singular present | putrifies |
|---|---|
| present participle | putrifying |
| past participle | putrified |
| past | putrified |
Questions about putrify
- What is putrify the alternative spelling of?
- Putrify is the alternative spelling of putrefy.
Words near putrify in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: putrify (page history and authors); putrefy (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-putrefy.ogg.
Cite this entry: “putrify.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/putrify. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.