festered

verb

past tense of fester
as in decomposed
to go through decomposition a week after the battle the corpses of the fallen were still festering in the fields

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of festered In response to angry, sometimes mocking, questions from Republican senators, Fauci declined to answer more than 100 times, injecting new drama into partisan divides that have festered for years about the origins and handling of the pandemic. — Lauran Neergaard, Fortune, 29 July 2026 Forest, who had qualified for the Conference League, took their place, and resentment has festered. — Daniel Taylor, New York Times, 1 July 2026 As the police department’s ranks shrank, crime festered, both aboveground and below. — Kevin Lozano, Harpers Magazine, 2 June 2026 The bad blood that had festered between the two competitors came to a boiling point. — Ryan Gaydos, FOXNews.com, 11 May 2026 For years, this debate between stricter codes and affordable housing festered behind the scenes, including at the obscure International Code Council, which brings together government officials, contractors, appliance makers and others to lay the groundwork for model codes. — The Editorial Board, Chicago Tribune, 30 Mar. 2026 The controversy stretches back years, but festered under ex-President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who was in office from 2018-2024. — ABC News, 27 Mar. 2026 Here, according to the MAGA universe, festered the deep state. — David Blumenthal, STAT, 24 Mar. 2026 And, yet, concerns festered all the same. — Noah Furtado, San Francisco Chronicle, 3 Feb. 2026
Recent Examples of Synonyms for festered
  1. decomposed
  2. disintegrated
  3. rotted
  4. decayed
Verb
  • Determining the causes of death was complicated by how decomposed the bodies were, the medical examiner’s office said.
    — Justin Muszynski, Hartford Courant, 25 Aug. 2026
  • The study hypothesized that the sickle was added before the body fully decomposed since no joints were detached or displaced, as archaeologists would expect if a grave were to be disturbed after the body became a skeleton.
    — Katie Hunt, CNN Money, 21 Aug. 2026
Definition of decomposed
Verb
  • Just seconds later, in a separate incident, the Brazilian F50 was about to go into a standard jibe maneuver (turning the boat through the wind to change direction) but disintegrated in the blink of an eye.
    — Andrew Rice, New York Times, 20 Aug. 2026
  • Tim Graham/Getty Images Most Popular Nader’s empire quickly disintegrated into chaos.
    — Hadley Hall Meares, Vanity Fair, 17 Aug. 2026
Definition of disintegrated
Verb
  • By this point the food in her fridge rotted and her basement flooded.
    — Rebecca Johnson, Chicago Tribune, 20 Aug. 2026
  • In the process, Ownbey discovered support timbers had rotted away, forcing him to bring entire walls to his workshop for meticulous reconstruction.
    — Mark Price, Charlotte Observer, 19 Aug. 2026
Definition of rotted
Verb
  • The resulting collisions formed excited compound nuclei that decayed through multiple gamma-ray steps.
    — Aman Tripathi, Interesting Engineering, 1 Aug. 2026
  • In order to have aqueous alteration there needs to be some internal heating [usually via radioactive elements] and if something forms later than everything else then there will be less heat [since many of the radioactive elements will have already decayed].
    — Keith Cooper, Space.com, 19 June 2026
Definition of decayed

Browse Nearby Words

fester
festered
festering
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Festered.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/festered. Accessed 2 Sep. 2026.

Copy Citation
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of dissonant

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

Is it 'nerve-racking' or 'nerve-wracking'?

What's the difference between 'fascism' and 'socialism'?

Why does English have so many silent letters?

7 Pairs of Commonly Confused Words
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

Ye Olde Nincompoop: Old-Fashioned Words for 'Stupid'

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

Even More Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

Even More Bird Names that Sound Like Insults (and Sometimes Are)

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World
See More

Popular

See More

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

Ye Olde Nincompoop: Old-Fashioned Words for 'Stupid'

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
skateboard-dog-hat
Wordmaxxing Slang Quiz Give your vocabulary a glow up by getting sendy w...
See All