as in rotting
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as in decomposing
to go through decomposition
we traced the bad smell to a dead skunk putrefying under the house
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Recent Examples of putrefying
Katy Waldman, New Yorker, 9 Aug. 2025
Verb
Because lose-lose situations are so endemic to the genre, a hint of relief can sometimes accompany the prospect of surrender to the putrefying mob.
—Katy Waldman, New Yorker, 9 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for putrefying
Verb
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In desert regions, natural mummification is common due to the dry conditions where fungi and bacteria can’t thrive on a decomposing corpse.—
Laura Baisas,
Popular Science,
15 Jan. 2026
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In town, the painter also notes the reek of decomposing bodies, of garbage, of blood streaming out of the butcher shop.—
Amir Ahmadi Arian,
The Dial,
15 Jan. 2026
Adjective
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This putrescent combination of sky-high home prices, rising mortgage rates and stifling consumer inflation have forced all but the wealthiest or most determined buyers out of a new home.—
Q.ai - Powering a Personal Wealth Movement,
Forbes,
17 Aug. 2022
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The most common are oils (cinnamon, clove, thyme, garlic, etc.), putrescent whole egg solids, dried blood, etc.—
Kym Pokorny,
OregonLive.com,
17 Apr. 2018
Verb
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Even collapse felt easier in motion than rotting in that cabin.—
Nick Dothée,
Los Angeles Times,
30 Jan. 2026
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Stout was a legendary gardener whose only garden input other than water was rotting hay.—
Joshua Siskin,
Oc Register,
24 Jan. 2026
Verb
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The only viable explanation is that an even higher-energy particle — a more stable one — must have struck the upper atmosphere of the Earth and produced a particle shower, where those decaying particles led to the presence of these muons.—
Big Think,
Big Think,
30 Jan. 2026
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In its native environment, the black locust can be a boon, providing edible, fragrant flowers and slow-decaying wood for fence posts or decking.—
Jennifer Lobb,
Martha Stewart,
30 Jan. 2026
Adjective
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Finally, try to keep humidity around 50-70% to prevent corks from drying out or labels from getting moldy.—
Emily Price,
Forbes.com,
25 Jan. 2026
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If the door seal is moldy, clean it well with diluted chlorine bleach and a sponge before running the cleaning cycle.—
Mary Marlowe Leverette,
Southern Living,
25 Jan. 2026
Verb
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As in a seventeenth-century poem by John Donne, George Herbert, or Andrew Marvell, the fraught human body is a microcosm, a mirror to the larger disintegrating world spirit.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
29 Jan. 2026
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When Syrian dictator Bashar Assad’s army was disintegrating in the face of a rapid advance by Syrian opposition forces under the command of Ahmad al-Sharaa, all the Russians were willing to do was launch a few symbolic airstrikes and help organize Assad’s getaway to a life in exile.—
Daniel DePetris,
Chicago Tribune,
13 Jan. 2026
Adjective
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There, a corroded pipe leaked 5,000 gallons of fuel into the crawl space of a maintenance building associated with the elementary school.—
Emily Schwing,
NPR,
17 Nov. 2025
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The renovation plans call for replacing the sign’s corroded letters and converting the lighting to an LED system.—
Barbara Henry,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
16 Oct. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Putrefying.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/putrefying. Accessed 1 Feb. 2026.
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