Word forms: 3rd person singular presenttense festers, present participle festering, past tense, past participle festered
1. verb
If you say that a situation, problem, or feeling is festering, you disapprove of the fact that it is being allowed to grow more unpleasant or full of anger, because it is not being properly recognized or dealt with.
[disapproval]
Resentments are starting to fester. [VERB]
...the festering wounds of rejection. [VERB-ing]
Synonyms: intensify, gall, smoulder, chafe More Synonyms of fester
2. verb
If a wound festers, it becomes infected, making it worse.
The wound is festering, and gangrene has set in. [VERB]
Many of the children are afflicted by festering sores. [VERB-ing]
Synonyms: putrefy, decay, become infected, become inflamed More Synonyms of fester
3. verb
If you say that food is festering, you mean that it is decaying in a very unpleasant way.
[British]
The chops will fester and go to waste. [VERB]
...stale sauces festering in fridges. [VERB]
Synonyms: rot, break down, spoil, corrupt More Synonyms of fester
fester in British English
(ˈfɛstə)
verb
1.
to form or cause to form pus
2. (intransitive)
to become rotten; decay
3.
to become or cause to become bitter, irritated, etc, esp over a long period of time; rankle
resentment festered his imagination
4. (intransitive) informal
to be idle or inactive
noun
5.
a small ulcer or sore containing pus
Word origin
C13: from Old French festre suppurating sore, from Latin: fistula
fester in American English
(ˈfɛstər)
noun
1.
a small sore filled with pus; pustule
verb intransitive
2.
to form pus; ulcerate
3.
a.
to grow embittered; rankle
b.
to grow or increase in virulence
4.
to decay
verb transitive
5.
to cause the formation of pus in
6.
to make rankle; embitter
Word origin
ME festre < OFr < L fistula: see fistula
Examples of 'fester' in a sentence
fester
This is going to be a festering sore for the man who promised to drain the Washington swamp.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
Anger is already festering there.
The Sun (2016)
But ignoring them risks allowing the sore to fester.
The Sun (2014)
These are issues which have been festering away for a long time.
Times, Sunday Times (2009)
My wounds fester and are loathsome because of my sinful folly.
Christianity Today (2000)
It has been left festering far too long.
The Sun (2011)
It cannot fester and become a cancer.
The Sun (2013)
We are best friends but this problem has been festering for ages.
The Sun (2009)
It will fester and grow until one day it erupts.
Times, Sunday Times (2009)
It was clearly festering away with him.
The Sun (2010)
But it has left many festering problems.
Butt, Gerald A Rock and a Hard Place (1994)
And that allows social problems to fester and grow unseen.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
It was festering like a sore.
The Sun (2015)
She won't let arguments go on and fester.
The Sun (2014)
If we sit with a resentment against another person, it is liable to grow and fester.
Times, Sunday Times (2007)
Like a festering sore, it turned nasty last week.
Times, Sunday Times (2011)
HOW has the monstrous scandal of unpaid fines been allowed to fester this long?
The Sun (2011)
There's a guilty secret that has been festering away in the depths of my soul for the past few months.
Times, Sunday Times (2012)
The wound continued to fester.
Adam Sisman The Friendship: Wordsworth and Coleridge (2006)
This festering sore is at last receiving treatment with a costly refit that should make the hitherto ghastly 1960s stand almost unrecognisable.
Times, Sunday Times (2006)
This week's veg box has arrived but half of last week's is still festering in the veg drawer.
Times, Sunday Times (2010)
If there are still minor domestic problems to face and sort out, don't leave them to fester any longer.
The Sun (2015)
Don't feel you have to bury how you feel or it will fester away, but do both get help.
The Sun (2012)
He set his teeth with the pain as they pulled him up: there was a wound festering high up on his right arm, on the inner side.
Clerk, Jayana & Siegel, Ruth Modern Literatures of the Non-Western World: Where the Waters Are Born (1995)
In other languages
fester
British English: fester VERB
If you say that a situation, problem, or feeling is festering, you disapprove of the fact that it is being allowed to grow more unpleasant or full of anger, because it is not being properly recognized or dealt with.
Resentments are starting to fester.
American English: fester
Brazilian Portuguese: inflamar-se
Chinese: 恶化
European Spanish: exacerbar
French: couver
German: sich verschlimmern
Italian: inasprirsi
Japanese: つのる
Korean: 심해지다
European Portuguese: inflamar-se
Latin American Spanish: exacerbar
Chinese translation of 'fester'
fester
(ˈfɛstəʳ)
vi
(liter)
[sore, wound]化脓(膿) (huànóng)
(fig)[resentment]加剧(劇) (jiājù)
1 (verb)
Definition
to grow worse and increasingly hostile
Resentments are starting to fester.
Synonyms
intensify
gall
It was their smugness that galled her most.
smoulder
He smouldered as he drove home for lunch.
chafe
irk
The rehearsal process irked him increasingly.
rankle
What she said rankled me.
aggravate
Stress and lack of sleep can aggravate the situation.
2 (verb)
Definition
(of a wound) to form pus
The wound is festering and gangrene has set in.
Synonyms
putrefy
decay
become infected
become inflamed
suppurate
ulcerate
maturate
gather
3 (verb)
Definition
to rot and decay
The food will fester and go to waste.
Synonyms
rot
The grain will start rotting in the silos.
break down
spoil
Fats spoil by becoming tainted.
corrupt
crumble
Under the pressure, the flint crumbled into fragments.
The chalk cliffs are crumbling.
deteriorate
X-rays are used to prevent fresh food from deteriorating.
decay
The dead leaves slowly decayed.
disintegrate
taint
Rancid oil will taint the flavour.
perish
The rubber lining had perished.
degenerate
The argument degenerated into a fist fight.
decompose
foods which decompose and rot
corrode
Engineers found that the structure had been corroded by moisture.
moulder
the empty, mouldering old house
go bad
putrefy (formal)
the stench of corpses putrefying in the sweltering heat
Additional synonyms
in the sense of aggravate
Definition
to make (a disease, situation, or problem) worse
Stress and lack of sleep can aggravate the situation.
Synonyms
make worse,
exaggerate,
intensify,
worsen,
heighten,
exacerbate,
magnify,
inflame,
increase,
add insult to injury,
fan the flames of
in the sense of corrode
Definition
to destroy gradually
Engineers found that the structure had been corroded by moisture.
Synonyms
eat away,
waste,
consume,
corrupt,
deteriorate,
erode,
rust,
gnaw,
oxidize
in the sense of crumble
Definition
to fall apart or decay
Under the pressure, the flint crumbled into fragments.The chalk cliffs are crumbling.