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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Mulch is also readily available, provided by the tree’s own slowly decomposing leaves, which fall throughout the year since this species is evergreen.—
Joshua Siskin,
Oc Register,
31 Jan. 2026
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The following month, on April 17, 1996, two county workers stumbled across the decomposing remains of Kenneth Smith.—
Christine Pelisek,
PEOPLE,
30 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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The fruit can have a little give, but a very soft lemon is overripe or rotting.—
Brandee Gruener,
Southern Living,
3 Feb. 2026
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The conservancy's plan to shoot the deer from the air, using helicopters, was shut down in 2024 after residents voiced concerns of bullets raining down and rotting deer carcasses that would be left behind.—
Julie Sharp,
CBS News,
2 Feb. 2026
Verb
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RTGs transform the heat from decaying matter into electrical power for spacecraft.—
Mrigakshi Dixit,
Interesting Engineering,
4 Feb. 2026
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That decaying wood can enrich the soil of a brand-new flower bed.—
Brandee Gruener,
Southern Living,
31 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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This vacuum was meant to prevent the tungsten filament––that’s the little wire inside the bulb, the thing that glows––from burning up and disintegrating immediately, which is what a very hot piece of metal would do in the presence of oxygen.—
Natalia Sánchez Loayza,
Scientific American,
5 Feb. 2026
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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
Adjective
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Follow this step-by-step approach to safely remove rusty, corroded hardware, without turning this small repair into a bigger problem.—
Olivia McIntosh,
Martha Stewart,
15 Jan. 2026
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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
Cite this Entry
“Putrefying.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/putrefying. Accessed 8 Feb. 2026.
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