putrid, a.
(ˈpjuːtrɪd)
(In 6–7 erron. putred.)
[a. L. putrid-us rotten, f. putrēre to rot, f. puter rotten. Cf. F. putride (14th c. in Godef.).]
1. Of organic bodies or substances: In a state of decomposition; rotten.
| 1598 Marston Sco. Villanie i. Proem. (1599) 171 Quake guzzell dogs, that liue on putred slime, Skud from the lashes of my yerking rime. 1692 Bentley Boyle Lect. iv. 133 [He] made innumerable trials with the putrid Flesh of all sorts of Beasts and Fowls. 1750 tr. Leonardus' Mirr. Stones 83 Coral cleanses putrid sores. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) I. 234 Stagnant sea-water, like fresh, soon grows putrid. 1777 Priestley Matt. & Spir. (1782) I. x. 130 Only vegetable and animal substances ever become properly putrid and offensive. 1862 Burton Bk. Hunter 350 Glad to appease their hunger on putrid horse-flesh. |
2. a. Pertaining to, causing, proceeding from, accompanying, or infected with putrefaction; foul.
| 1610 Healey Vive's Comm. St. Aug. Citie of God x. xi. 377 Whole heauen (perforce) shall see thy putred hew. 1612 Drayton Poly-olb. xviii. 50 From her there yet proceeds unwholesome putrid air. c 1750 Shenstone Elegies xviii. 24 Avoid the putrid moisture of the mead. 1813 Shelley Q. Mab iv. 87 Their bones Bleaching unburied in the putrid blast. 1898 Allbutt's Syst. Med. V. 351 Symptoms which are called typhoid or putrid, and which are indicative of septic infection of the whole body. |
b. putrid fever, a name for typhus fever; pythogenic fever; putrid sore throat, gangrenous pharyngitis; sometimes applied to diphtheria.
| [a 1412 Lydg. Two Merch. 295 And putrida is causyd gladly thus.] 1651 French Distill. iii. 64 Spirit of Salt is very good in Feavers putrid. 1771 Gentl. Mag. XLI. 471/2 Mr. Poole, his wife, daughter and mother, who all died a few days ago of a putrid sore throat. 1774 Pennant Tour Scot. in 1772, 305 Putrid fever, the epidemic of the coasts, originating from unwholsome food. 1822–34 Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) I. 682 The diseases called the putrid fever, and putrid sore throat are but of late date. |
3. fig. (a) Morally, socially, or politically corrupt; æsthetically abominable. (b) Corrupting, noxious, noisome. (c) Used as a mere intensive: dreadful, awful, appalling. colloq.
| [1602 Marston Antonio's Rev. i. iv, Yon putred ulcer of my roiall bloode.] 1628 Feltham Resolves i. xii. Wks. (1677) 18 The sedulous Bee..working that to honey which the putri'd Spider would convert to poyson. 1649 Milton Eikon. xxvii, Teaching to his Son all those putrid and pernicious documents, both of State and Religion. 1766 C. O'Conor Dissert. Hist. Scot. 64 Quoting and ridiculing also, Some putrid Lines which he ascribes to Irish Bards. 1883 ‘Mark Twain’ Life on Mississippi ii. 37 La Salle drew from these simple children of the forest acknowledgments of fealty to Louis the Putrid, over the water. 1893 Scotsman 28 June 6 In respect to electoral morality Pontefract is putrid. 1898 Windsor Mag. Dec. 40/1 You're an ass—a putrid ass. 1902 S. J. Cotes Those Delightful Americans 104 Last night at billiards you first said your luck was ‘rotten’, and then you got excited and declared it was ‘putrid’. 1913 ‘I. Hay’ Right Stuff p. vi, He seems to have perfectly putrid notions about some things. 1931 D. L. Sayers Five Red Herrings iv. 45 Some putrid fool sliced a ball..and got me slap-bang in the eye. |
† 4. Of soil (rendering L. putris in Vergil): Loose, crumbling, friable, mellow. Obs.
| 1635–56 Cowley Davideis iv. 708 Here with sharp neighs the warlike Horses sound; And with proud prancings beat the putrid ground [putrem quatit ungula campum]. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. ii. 281 Fat crumbling Earth [putris glæba] is fitter for the Plough, Putrid and loose above, and black below. 1780 A. Young Tour Irel. (Nat. Libr. ed.) 161 A mellow, putrid, friable loam. |
Hence ˈputridly adv., in a putrid manner; ˈputridness, putrid condition, rottenness.
| 1889 J. M. Duncan Clin. Lect. Dis. Women x. (ed. 4) 60 A putridly decomposing bit of decidua, or of placental tissue. 1669 W. Simpson Hydrol. Chym. 371 To begin to undergo a putridness. 1698 Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 68 An Infecundity in the Earth, and a Putridness in the Air. 1903 Daily Record & Mail 2 June 4 The excuse made..was that the stores had revealed a tendency to putridness. |