gangrene

[ gang-green, gang-green ]

noun

1. necrosis or death of soft tissue due to obstructed circulation, usually followed by decomposition and putrefaction.
2. moral or spiritual corruption and decadence that pervades an individual or group:

   “This church body has been afflicted with a spiritual gangrene that is poisoning our relationship with the Lord,” the preacher expostulated.

   Synonyms: degeneracy, depravity, rot, decay

verb (used with or without object)

, gan·grened, gan·gren·ing.

1. to affect or become affected with gangrene.

gangrene

/ ˈɡæŋɡriːn; ˈɡæŋɡrɪnəs /

noun

1. death and decay of tissue as the result of interrupted blood supply, disease, or injury
2. moral decay or corruption

verb

1. to become or cause to become affected with gangrene

gangrene

/ găng′grēn′ /

1. Death of tissue in a living body, especially in a limb, caused by a bacterial infection resulting from a blockage of the blood supply to the affected tissue.

gangrene

1. The death and decay of body tissue owing to insufficient supply of blood .

Derived Forms

• gangrenous, adjective

Other Words From

• gan·gre·nous [gang, -gr, uh, -n, uh, s], adjective
• non·gangre·nous adjective
• un·gangrened adjective
• un·gangre·nous adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of gangrene¹

First recorded in 1535–45; from Middle French gangrene (earlier cancrene ), from Latin gangraena, from Greek gángraina “an eating sore”

Word History and Origins

Origin of gangrene¹

C16: from Latin gangraena, from Greek gangraina an eating sore; related to Greek gran to gnaw

Example Sentences

Ganesh Manudhane, a Mumbai cardiologist, told Bloomberg in June that he has seen increasing cases of microthrombi, which are clots in small blood vessels, so severe that gangrene develops, which can be life-threatening.

From Popular-Science

I did a ten minute scene in his class: the guy who had gangrene in his leg in The Snows of Kilimanjaro.

From The Daily Beast

In Alabama, an arrested 19-year-old shoplifter got gangrene and died naked on the floor of a “medical observation cell.”

From The Daily Beast

Mixner almost died in February, after his lower intestine got twisted, leaving him with gangrene in his heart and lungs.

From The Daily Beast

The ideology of bigotry can be found all over Europe, in fact, and its ugliness is spreading like gangrene, especially in France.

From The Daily Beast

Gangrene is not curable by current medical intervention once past a certain point in its progression, except by amputation.

From The Daily Beast

It, or a similar bacillus, is sometimes found in the sputum of gangrene of the lung.

From Project Gutenberg

He thought about things like lock-jaw and gangrene and his hand trembled as he tied his pocket-handkerchief around the wound.

From Project Gutenberg

Only the new antibiotics he had taken along, had kept the gangrene from killing him.

From Project Gutenberg

His first treatise—on gangrene and sphacelus—quickly made him known, and went through eleven editions.

From Project Gutenberg

It was as likely as not a charge of buck-shot low down in the body, leaving the rest to hemorrhage or gangrene.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• blight
• corrosion
• decomposition
• degeneration
• deterioration
• disintegration
• disrepair
• extinction
• impairment
• rot