Definition of "putrescent"

When it is combined with that quantity of water with which it is found united in the gall-bladder, it is not more putrescent than the serum of the blood

1791, George Fordyce, A treatise on the digestion of food, page 68

This same reason accounts to a considerable extent for the fact, that soft steeping liquor, if seldom changed, becomes much more putrescent than hard water retained with the same barleys for a similar period in cistern.

1885, Henry Stopes, Malt and malting, an historical, scientific, and practical treatise, page 48

although in some instances these spores are elliptical and smooth, they are often coarsely warted and angular. The group in itself seems to be a very natural one, for the species are all soft and fleshy, and even more putrescent than

2009, Mordecai Cubitt Cooke, Introduction to the Study of Fungi, Their Organography,, page 132