putridityn.

1628 R. Burton Anat. Melancholy (ed. 3) i. iii. ii. iv. 193 The whole maladie proceeds from that inflammation, putredity, black smoakie vapours.

1671 H. Stubbe Epistolary Disc. Phlebotomy 73 If such a putridity be unimaginable..it is certain that there is no such thing as the Arsenical or Napelline poyson in the Pest.

1777 G. Forster Voy. round World I. 92 The degree of freshness or of putridity.

1801 Med. & Physical Jrnl. 5 145 A true typhus, with symptoms of putridity.

1867 J. Bright Speeches Parl. Reform 30 General corruption and putridity are the destruction of most bodies which they affect.

1939 J. H. Shrader Food Control iii. 44 The relationship between putridity of foods and food poisoning has not been proved.

1984 Ann. Agric. Sci. 29 859 Odor of decomposition, slight putridity and soft texture developed after 25 and 13 days of cold-storage.

1790 C. M. Graham Lett. Educ. 356 As we find the Deity has made putridity agreeable and wholesome to several of the animals, he might have made it so to all.

1799 J. Robertson Gen. View Agric. Perth 448 The smoke and putridities, which taint the air of large cities.

1859 C. Darwin Origin of Species vi. 197 The naked skin on the head of a vulture is generally looked at as a direct adaptation for wallowing in putridity.

1922 G. S. Hall Senescence ix. 494 The later higher alchemy left all this behind and strove to bring not only life but the homunculus itself out of various rotting putridities.

1986 B. Lopez Arctic Dreams Prol. 5 Along the floe edge lay the dead bodies of hundreds of flenched whales... The air for miles around was tainted with the foetor which arose from such masses of putridity.

1823 R. Southey Select. from Lett. 31 Oct. (1856) III. 408 Not against the principle of the government..but against the stagnation and putridity.

1873 ‘Ouida’ Pascarèl I. 8 We—whose whole year-long course is one Dance of Death over the putridity of our pleasures.

1877 J. D. Chambers Divine Worship Eng. 183 The emblem of purity and preservation from putridity.

1905 J. Davidson Theatrocrat iii. 151 Purge yourself Of God, of Heaven and Hell, of soul and sin, Of small humanities, fantastic moods, Putridities of spirit, posies, myths.

1929 E. Pound How to Read (1931) 16 They try to make a bog, a marasmus, a great putridity in place of a sane and active ebullience.

1998 Miami Herald (Nexis) 9 Oct. 9 d Never quite know what to expect with Dallas. With Carolina, you do. Expect awfulness and putridity.