: a painful local purulent inflammation of the skin and deeper tissues with multiple openings for the discharge of pus and usually necrosis and sloughing of dead tissue
Recent Examples on the WebBut all that was knocked down half a century ago, to be replaced by a concrete carbuncle that destroyed the arch and chunks of nearby streets and has been making commuters miserable since 1968.The Economist, 8 Feb. 2020 This isn't Westeros; no one's out here massing troops on opposite sides of a meadow while the fat cats in the biggest tent play an oversized game of Risk and tend to their carbuncles. Peter Rubin, WIRED, 20 Aug. 2019 This pile of dough is a swollen carbuncle on the backside of our fiscal/economic donkey.Alaska Dispatch News, 29 June 2017 The EOS 650 was the first autofocus SLR that didn’t suck, or have a giant carbuncle on the side of the lens (Canon T80, anyone?) Charlie Sorrel, WIRED, 21 Dec. 2007
Word History
Etymology
Middle English, from Anglo-French charbucle, carbuncule, from Latin carbunculus small coal, carbuncle, diminutive of carbon-, carbo charcoal, ember
First Known Use
before the 12th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a
Time Traveler
The first known use of carbuncle was before the 12th century