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

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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 And, yet, concerns festered all the same. — Noah Furtado, San Francisco Chronicle, 3 Feb. 2026 The bad blood that had festered between the two competitors came to a boiling point. — Ryan Gaydos, FOXNews.com, 11 May 2026 As the police department’s ranks shrank, crime festered, both aboveground and below. — Kevin Lozano, Harpers Magazine, 2 June 2026 Here, according to the MAGA universe, festered the deep state. — David Blumenthal, STAT, 24 Mar. 2026 Forest, who had qualified for the Conference League, took their place, and resentment has festered. — Daniel Taylor, New York Times, 1 July 2026 Internal tension about direction and leadership succession festered within the firm. — Allie Garfinkle, Fortune, 31 Jan. 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 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
Recent Examples of Synonyms for festered
  1. decomposed
  2. disintegrated
  3. rotted
  4. decayed
Verb
  • Remains of dogs too decomposed to be recovered were also found in the same field, the sheriff's office said.
    — Jose Fabian, CBS News, 27 June 2026
  • Every project should be decomposed into tasks, with explicit categorization of which are human, AI or hybrid.
    — Manu Khetan, Forbes.com, 25 June 2026
Definition of decomposed
Verb
  • In the fifth century CE, the western half of the Roman Empire disintegrated into a patchwork of new kingdoms and new rulers.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 25 June 2026
  • The meteor — which is thought to be a small chunk of a much larger asteroid — was probably too small and traveled too fast to survive atmospheric entry and instead disintegrated entirely, leaving no parts of it to fall to the ground in the form of meteorites.
    — Anthony Wood, Space.com, 16 June 2026
Definition of disintegrated
Verb
  • While the timber has long since rotted away, the posts lined up to point directly at the rising sun during the summer solstice and the setting sun at the winter solstice — in the same way as Stonehenge.
    — Elmira Aliieva, NBC news, 18 June 2026
  • The storm hit Jamaica on August 12, splintering three hundred homes, and 90 percent of banana crops rotted to black in the post-storm humidity.
    — Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 16 June 2026
Definition of rotted
Verb
  • 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
  • But since sitting vacant, the property has decayed and listed in city property records as unoccupiable.
    — Melissa Melvin-Rodriguez, Charlotte Observer, 18 May 2026
Definition of decayed

Browse Nearby Words

fester
festered
festering
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Cite this Entry

“Festered.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/festered. Accessed 7 Jul. 2026.

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Nglish: Translation of festered for Spanish Speakers

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