putrefy
putrefy Lexical Profile
putrefy Game Scores & Validity
• verb
To decay or rot and produce a fetid smell (of a body or other organic matter), or to cause organic matter to decay in this manner.
"Without proper refrigeration during the summer heatwave, the leftover meat began to putrefy within hours."
To become morally corrupt or degenerate, or to bring into a state of moral decay.
"Unchecked bribery and nepotism had caused the city's administrative institutions to putrefy from within."
Word Nuance & Usage
Watch the spelling carefully: "putrefy" is spelled with an 'e' in the middle, just like "liquefy" and "rarefy," unlike most verbs ending in "-ify" (such as "purify" or "petrify").
• Rhymes for putrefy
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed in Middle English from Old French putrefier, from Late Latin putreficare, an alteration of Latin putrefacere, meaning 'to make rotten,' formed from puter ('rotten') and facere ('to make').