Adjacent Words

Gangrene definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

GAN'GRENE, n. [L. gangroena.] A mortification of living flesh, or of some part of a living animal body. It is particularly applied to the first state of mortification, before the life of the part is completely extinct. When the part is completely dead, it is called sphacelus.
GAN'GRENE, v.t. To mortify, or to begin mortification in.
GAN'GRENE, v.i. To become mortified.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: necrotic tissue; a mortified or gangrenous part or mass [syn: gangrene, sphacelus, slough]
2: the localized death of living cells (as from infection or the interruption of blood supply) [syn: necrosis, mortification, gangrene, sphacelus] v
1: undergo necrosis; "the tissue around the wound necrosed" [syn: necrose, gangrene, mortify, sphacelate]

Merriam Webster's

I. noun Etymology: Latin gangraena, from Greek gangraina; akin to Greek gran to gnaw Date: 1543 1. local death of soft tissues due to loss of blood supply 2. pervasive decay or corruption ; rot <moral gangrene> • gangrenous adjective II. verb (gangrened; gangrening) Date: 1607 transitive verb to make gangrenous intransitive verb to become gangrenous

Britannica Concise

Localized soft-tissue death (necrosis) from prolonged blood-supply blockage. It can occur in arteriosclerosis, diabetes, or decubitus ulcer, and after severe burns or frostbite. In dry gangrene, gradual blood-supply decrease turns the part discolored and cold, then dark and dry. Treatment requires improving blood flow. Moist gangrene comes from a sudden blood-supply cutoff. Bacterial infection causes swelling, discoloration, and then a foul smell. Along with antibiotics, tissue removal may be needed to prevent spread, which can be fatal. A more virulent form, gas gangrene, is named for gas bubbles under the skin produced by a highly lethal toxin from clostridium bacteria. The wound oozes brownish, smelly pus. Infection spreads rapidly, causing death. All dead and diseased tissue must be removed and antibiotics given; an antitoxin can also be used.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. & v. --n. 1 Med. death and decomposition of a part of the body tissue, usu. resulting from obstructed circulation. 2 moral corruption. --v.tr. & intr. affect or become affected with gangrene. Derivatives: gangrenous adj. Etymology: F gangrène f. L gangraena f. Gk gaggraina

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Gangrene Gan"grene, n. [F. gangr[`e]ne, L. gangraena, fr. Gr. ?, fr. ? to gnaw, eat; cf. Skr. gras, gar, to devour, and E. voracious, also canker, n., in sense 3.] (Med.) A term formerly restricted to mortification of the soft tissues which has not advanced so far as to produce complete loss of vitality; but now applied to mortification of the soft parts in any stage.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Gangrene Gan"grene, v. t. & i. [imp. & p. p. Gangrened; p. pr. & vb. n. Gangrening.] [Cf. F. gangr['e]ner.] To produce gangrene in; to be affected with gangrene.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

Gangrene is the decay that can occur in a part of a person's body if the blood stops flowing to it, for example as a result of illness or injury. Once gangrene has developed the tissue is dead.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

gan'-gren (gaggraina, pronounced gan-graina; the King James Version canker):

The name was used by the old Greek physicians for an eating ulcer which corrodes the soft parts and, according to Galen, often ends in mortification. Paul compares the corrupting influence of profane babbling or levity, in connection with subjects which ought to be treated with reverence to this disease (2Ti 2:17). The old English word "canker" is used by 16th-and 17th-century authors as the name of a caterpillar which eats into a bud. In this sense it occurs 18 times in Shakespeare (e.g. Midsummer Night's Dream, II, ii, 3). The canker-worm mentioned 6 times by Joe and Nahum is probably the young stage of Acridium peregrinum, a species of locust. Cankered in Jas 5:3 the King James Version means "rusted" (Greek katiotai), and is so rendered in the Revised Version (British and American). In Susanna verse 52 Coverdale uses the phrase, "O thou old cankered carle," in Daniel's address to the elder, where English Versions of the Bible has "waxen old in wickedness." The word is still used in the Scottish dialect and applied to persons who are cross-grained and disagreeable.

Alexander Macalister

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. n. Mortification. II. v. a. Mortify. III. v. n. Mortify, be mortified, lose vitality.

Moby Thesaurus

break up, canker, caries, carrion, corrupt, corruption, crumble, crumble into dust, dandruff, decay, decompose, decomposition, disintegrate, dry gangrene, dry rot, excrement, fall into decay, fall to pieces, fester, filth, foul matter, foulness, furfur, gas gangrene, go bad, go to pieces, mess, mildew, moist gangrene, mold, molder, mortification, mortify, muck, mucus, necrose, necrosis, necrotic tissue, noma, obscenity, ordure, pus, putrefaction, putrefy, putresce, putrescence, putrid matter, putridity, putridness, rancidity, rancidness, rankle, rankness, rot, rottenness, scurf, scuz, slime, slough, smut, snot, sordes, sphacelate, sphacelation, sphacelus, spoil, spoilage, suppurate, tooth decay