Fes·ter v. i. [imp. & p. p. Festered p. pr. & vb. n. Festering.]
1. To generate pus; to become imflamed and suppurate; as, a sore or a wound festers.
Wounds immedicable
Rankle, and fester, and gangrene. --Milton.
Unkindness may give a wound that shall bleed and smart, but it is treachery that makes it fester. --South.
Hatred . . . festered in the hearts of the children of the soil. --Macaulay.
2. To be inflamed; to grow virulent, or malignant; to grow in intensity; to rankle.
festering
n 1: (medicine) the formation of morbific matter in an abscess or
a vesicle and the discharge of pus [syn: suppuration,
maturation]
2: a fluid product of inflammation [syn: pus, purulence, suppuration,
ichor, sanies]