fester

Inherited from Middle English festre, festur, borrowed from Old French festre (cognate with Italian fistola, Occitan fistola, Spanish fístula), from Latin fistula. The verb is derived from the noun, while the “condition of something that festers” noun sense is derived from the verb. Doublet of fistula.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈfɛstə(ɹ)/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈfɛstɚ/

• Audio (Received Pronunciation):

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• Audio (General Australian):

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• Rhymes: -ɛstə(ɹ)
• Hyphenation: fes‧ter

fester (plural festers)

1. (pathology, obsolete) A fistula.
2. (pathology) A sore or an ulcer of the skin.
   • 1848, Samuel Maunder, “SPIDERS. (Arachnida.)”, in The Treasury of Natural History; or, A Popular Dictionary of Animated Nature: In which the Zoological Characteristics that Distinguish the Different Classes, Genera, and Species, are Combined with a Variety of Interesting Information Illustrative of the Habits, Instincts, and General Economy of the Animal Kingdom. To which are Added, a Syllabus of Practical Taxidermy, and a Glossarial Appendix. , London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, Paternoster-Row, →OCLC, page 637, column 1:

     The larger the Spider, the warmer the climate or season of the year, and the more susceptible the wounded individual, so much worse will the effects be; and it is no therefore no wonder that people who would have a fester from a simple prick with a needle, should feel more violent effects from the bite of a Spider.

   • 1861, Benjamin Ridge, “Medical and Self Torture”, in Ourselves, Our Food, and Our Physic, London: Chapman and Hall, 193 Piccadilly, →OCLC, page 68:

     While to the fingers and toes, which are frequently the seat of spontaneous festers, &c., irritation is kept up [if a hot poultice is applied], the skin is thickened, and rendered less liable to be permeated by matter; the heat is driven down the soft structures to the very bones and joints, and a portion of them may be lost in consequence.

   • 1864 July, “The Rim. Part III.—Conclusion.”, in The Atlantic Monthly. A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politcs, volume XIV, number LXXXI, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, 135, Washington Street; London: Trübner and Company, →OCLC, page 68:

     He has been away so long and so often, there has been such mismanagement under a long minority, such changes and such misrule, such a hard hand and such a high hand, that the whole place is a fester.

3. The condition of something that festers; a festering; a festerment.

fester (third-person singular simple present festers, present participle festering, simple past and past participle festered)

1. (intransitive) To become septic; to become rotten.
   • 1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur Book XIX, Chapter x, leaf 394v:

     and she for the despyte of her sones dethe wrought by her subtyl craftes that syr Vrre shold neuer be hole but euer his woundes shold one tyme feyster & another tyme blede
     "and she, for the despite of her son’s death, wrought by her subtle crafts that Sir Urre should never be whole, but ever his wounds should one time fester and another time bleed"

   • 1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, .”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: J M for John Starkey , →OCLC, page 42, lines 521–523:

     [W]ounds immedicable / Ranckle, and feſter, and gangrene, / To black mortification.

   • 2014, Lu Hsiu-lien, Ashley Esarey, My Fight for a New Taiwan‎, University of Washington Press, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 240:

     On the day of my inauguration, the director of the Nationalist Party county office ordered the Chungli mayor to stop trash collection. Because I could not command the Chungli sanitation department directly—it is administered at the local level—piles of garbage began to fester on the streets.

   • 2017 February 23, Katie Rife, “The Girl With All The Gifts tries to put a fresh spin on overripe zombie clichés”, in The A.V. Club‎:

     Here, Melanie once again provides an interesting variation on the formula, serving as a scout and ambassador between worlds. Don't expect anything new from her human counterparts, though, just the usual shooting and running and hiding slowly festering flesh wounds.

2. (intransitive) To worsen, especially due to lack of attention.

   Deal with the problem immediately; do not let it fester.

   • 1855, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter XVII, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume IV, London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC, page 116:

     All this time hatred, kept down by fear, festered in the hearts of the children of the soil.

   • 2024 April 3, Philip Haigh, “Discord over Avanti West Coast is part of a wider problem”, in RAIL, number 1006, page 53:

     But the longer the problems are left to fester, the worse they will become.

3. (transitive) To cause to fester or rankle.
   • c. 1599–1600, John Marston, Antonios Reuenge. The Second Part. As it hath beene Sundry Times Acted, by the Children of Paules, London: Printed for Thomas Fisher, and are to be soulde in Saint Dunstans Church-yarde, published 1602, →OCLC, Act I, scene i; republished in J O Halliwell, editor, The Works of John Marston. Reprinted from the Original Editions. With Notes, and some Account of His Life and Writings. In Three Volumes, volume I, London: John Russell Smith, Soho Square, 1856, →OCLC, page 74:

     For which I burnt in inward sweltring hate, / And festred rankling malice in my breast, / Till I might belke revenge upon his eyes:

• festeringly
• festerment
• festerous (rare)

• Freets, efters, freest, freets

From festa +‎ -er.

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic)
• IPA^(key): (Valencia)

fester (feminine festera, masculine plural festers, feminine plural festeres)

1. festive

   Synonym: festiu

2. party-loving

   Synonym: festós

fester m (plural festers, feminine festera)

1. partygoer

   Synonym: festaire

fester m (plural festers)

1. torchiere

   Synonym: teiera

• “fester” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

fester c

1. indefinite plural of fest

fester

1. present of feste

• Audio:

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• Rhymes: -ɛstɐ

fester

1. inflection of fest:
   1. strong/mixed nominative masculine singular
   2. strong genitive/dative feminine singular
   3. strong genitive plural

fester m

1. indefinite plural of fest

fester

1. present of feste

From Old Norse festr, a derivative of Proto-Germanic *fastuz.

• IPA^(key): /¹fɛstər/

fester f (definite singular festra or festri, indefinite plural festrer, definite plural festrene)

1. rope to moor boats with

• fast (“fast, firm”)
• fest (“betrothal”)
• -fest (“place to moor boats”, used in place names)

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

fester f

1. indefinite plural of fest

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

fester

1. present tense of feste (“to fasten”)

fester

1. indefinite plural of fest