FESTERS Synonyms: 71 Similar and Opposite Words

festers 1 of 2

noun

plural of fester

as in boils

a small, inflamed swelling of the skin pus oozed out of the fester

Synonyms & Similar Words

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festers

2 of 2

verb

present tense third-person singular of fester

as in rots

to go through decomposition a week after the battle the corpses of the fallen were still festering in the fields

Synonyms & Similar Words

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 festers

Noun

More anxiety festers as the situation leaves unanswered questions of layoffs and more for the $80 billion debt a combo ParaBros will carry if the two iconic companies become one. — Dominic Patten, Deadline, 17 Aug. 2026 What occurs over the course of the weekend is what happens as grief festers into rage. — Aramide Tinubu, Variety, 28 May 2026 Throughout this episode, Austin’s bitterness festers. — Rafaela Bassili, Vulture, 16 Apr. 2026 It festers as part of a long, continuous line. — Theater Critic, San Francisco Chronicle, 29 Mar. 2026 When Trimmers fail to recognize this, evil festers. — David Brooks, The Atlantic, 25 Mar. 2026 Steep declines in timber harvests, meant to save Oregon’s last ancient forests, ripped open an urban-rural divide that still festers. — Phaedra Trethan, USA Today, 20 Mar. 2026 Larger debate over the French retreat and the role of disease still festers, however. — Andrea Tamayo, Scientific American, 24 Oct. 2025 South End residents and retailers said at a City Council hearing last Friday that businesses in Boston are being battered by shoplifting to feed the addiction that festers daily at the Mass and Cass drug market. — Gayla Cawley, Boston Herald, 21 Oct. 2025

Recent Examples of Synonyms for festers

Noun

People showed strange boils and rashes that volunteers photographed.

— Gustavo Arellano, Los Angeles Times, 8 Aug. 2026
Owners Anthony and Jennifer Arceneaux employ a special purge method to clean all their crawfish before tossing them into their famous boils or adding them to their crawfish etouffee.

— Tara Massouleh McCay, Southern Living, 2 Aug. 2026

Definition of boils

Verb

Messages break down, signals decay, information rots; the stuff of everyday data dystopia and media apocalypse, but in Braxton’s hands, raw material to be shaped into something recombinant and strange.

— Reed Jackson, SPIN, 24 Aug. 2026
Medicine shortages have worsened and food rots in fridges without power.

— Andrea Rodriguez, Fortune, 7 Aug. 2026

Definition of rots

Verb

Named for the Frenchman Joseph Fourier, the Fourier transform decomposes any function into a set of simple waves, each with a different frequency, or tone.

— Shalma Wegsman, Quanta Magazine, 12 Aug. 2026
The research team enabled a room-temperature, four-electron chemical reaction path that forms and decomposes lithium oxide, which expands available energy storage.

— Aman Tripathi, Interesting Engineering, 3 June 2026

Definition of decomposes

Noun

The biggest overnight mistakes include sleeping in makeup, skipping moisturizer, over-exfoliating, using SPF as a night cream and picking at pimples in bed.

— Samantha Agate, Sacbee.com, 17 Aug. 2026
In addition to being predominantly white, shoes with pimples around the outside of the toes are not permitted.

— Skyler Caruso, PEOPLE, 30 June 2026

Definition of pimples

Verb

Even those who can afford to stay suffer losses in home equity and lifestyle as the community around them disintegrates or disappears.

— The Conversation, Fortune, 12 June 2026
None are quite about the conflicting frames of reference and value that arise when an ancient cultural formation disintegrates and a successor has yet to take its place.

— Becca Rothfeld, New Yorker, 1 June 2026

Definition of disintegrates

Noun

Recent launch events have mostly settled into a predictable cadence of incremental camera upgrades and routine spec bumps.

— Sebastian Herrera, Fortune, 31 Aug. 2026
Therefore, wearing a watch on your left wrist is a smart styling choice, leaving your investment piece less prone to scratches, bumps, and other wear and tear.

— Larissa Ratschkowski, Glamour, 30 Aug. 2026

Definition of bumps

Verb

Rituals are performed, oaths proposed and broken, and tensions escalate as the unburied body decays.

— Georg Szalai, HollywoodReporter, 10 Aug. 2026
Control concentrated in one person dies with that person, decays with that person's judgment, and converts to cash the day that person takes a hard enough offer.

— Kyle Westaway, Forbes.com, 1 July 2026

Definition of decays

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festering

festers

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“Festers.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/festers. Accessed 1 Sep. 2026.

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Synonyms of festers

noun

verb

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