pus
/pʌs/ noun, verb
Forms pura pusses pussing pussed puss
- noun (medicine, pathology) A whitish-yellow or yellow substance composed primarily of dead white blood cells and dead pyogenic bacteria, normally found in regions of bacterial infection. “Pus was seeping out of the wound.”
- verb (rare) To emit pus.
Synonyms
Etymology
From Middle English pus (15th c.), a borrowing from Latin pus (“pus”). Widely displaced quitter and atter in this sense.
Webster’s 1913
- noun The yellowish white opaque creamy matter produced by the process of suppuration. It consists of innumerable white nucleated cells floating in a clear liquid.
Etymology [L., akin to Gr. foul: cf. F. pus. See Foul, a.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “pus”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details