carbuncular
- adjective
- /ˌkɑːrˈbʌŋkjələr/
- Specialized
:
carbunculoso
- His carbuncular appearance, with red and swollen welts, was concerning to the attending physician.
Examples
-
A burly, bearded, carbuncular, mercenary-looking fellow in a baseball cap and military fatigues stood close to and looked straight at Burnsley, looked, more specifically, at the part of Burnsley that Burnsley would least have had him look at.
Fiction book (2001) -
T.S. Eliot thought that literary journalism should be disinterested, objective, without politics, and that the treasonable clerks who disagreed were carbuncular.
Academic text (1996) -
In effect, in the poem, the typist and the young man carbuncular must be crossing the bridge.
-
Embracing the boy, trapping his arms at his sides, breathing in the sour smell of his carbuncular flesh, sobbing and laughing, he kisses him on the left cheek and on the right.
Academic text (2018) -
The patient's carbuncular condition required immediate medical attention to prevent further infection.
-
She noticed a carbuncular outbreak on the patient, marked by painful lumps on the skin.
Synonyms
Having many red, painful lumps on the skin
How Pustular
- Specialized
- Specialized
1
8.3
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Carbuncular comes from the old Latin word carbunculus, meaning 'small coal', from carbo 'coal', because a red gem once called a carbuncle looked like a glowing coal. So a carbuncular swelling is a red, hot-looking lump on the skin, like a little coal under the surface.