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Webster's Dictionary (1865)

2 entries under this word

Putrefy

Pū'tre-fy, v. t.

verbtransitive

v. t. [Written also putrify.] [imp. & p. p. PUTREFIED; p. pr. & vb. n. PUTREFYING.] [Fr. putréfier, It. putrefare, Lat. putrefacere, from putrere, to be rotten, and facere, to make. See PUTRID.]

Sense 1. To render putrid; to cause to decay offensively; to cause to be decomposed; to cause to rot.

Sense 2. To corrupt; to make foul.

Let him have them; to keep them here They would but stink, and putrefy the air. Shak.

Sense 3. To make morbid, carious, or gangrenous; as, to putrefy an ulcer or wound.

Pū'tre-fy, v. i.

verbintransitive

v. i. To become putrid; to decay offensively; to have the constituent elements newly arranged, forming new compounds, as animal and vegetable substances deprived of the living principle; to rot.