fester

Psychiatric researchers are referring to the confluence of these three characteristics—sycophancy, linguistic alignment and hyperpersonalization—as the “amplification spiral,” suggesting it’s the mechanism by which delusional thinking can fester.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 27, 2026

She says she does her best to tell him that the system is cruel and wrong, but she doesn’t want the anger to fester.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 14, 2026

Sweeping contentious issues under the rug and relegating them to wanton aggravation is one major way of letting these same topics fester.

From Salon ● Apr. 3, 2026

"I think for everybody there was an element of it was going to happen because antisemitism has been allowed to grow and fester and become normalised," Finlay said.

From BBC ● Feb. 13, 2026

And you left the same Band-Aid on for—God—probably thirty-seven hours by now, just letting it fester inside that warm, moist old Band-Aid.

From "Turtles All the Way Down" by John Green

By your early 70s, the anxiety festers and grows.

From MarketWatch ● Mar. 26, 2026

With no immediate help from officers, the fear and anxiety festers inside you.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 6, 2025

Journalists who joined the patrol also witnessed what life has been like for the Philippine Coast Guard as the South China Sea dispute festers.

From BBC ● Apr. 28, 2023

The trial will revisit one of the most searing manifestations of how hatred and intolerance that festers online can spread onto the streets.

From New York Times ● Nov. 2, 2021

Now everything resonates, sticks like a splinter, festers.

From "We Are Okay" by Nina LaCour

But an uneasy tension festered behind the fanfare.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 30, 2026

But this issue has festered for years, and rather than point fingers, the district or the city, or both, need to do their jobs.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 20, 2025

No amount of martyrdom can save his legacy from succumbing to the rot he festered.

From Salon ● Sep. 21, 2025

Peace proposals and presidents have come and gone but the problems have festered.

From BBC ● Feb. 5, 2025

And with that, he winked, an act that turned the sandwich I’d had the night before into a revolting slime that churned and festered in my stomach.

From "Summer of the Mariposas" by Guadalupe García McCall

As earnings season gets under way, festering worries about artificial-intelligence stocks could be put to bed.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 15, 2026

The subindex tracking service activity rose to 50.3 from April’s 49.6, while the construction subindex stood at 48.8, compared with 48.0 in the prior month as a festering property slump continued to weigh on growth.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 31, 2026

But with little progress on the issues festering and so much riding on their relationship, any reprieve could be temporary—and the space for surprises large.

From Barron's ● May 12, 2026

The insanity of investing in a new playground when a dozen festering issues make the park unsafe should be crystal clear to one and all.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 18, 2026

The massacres had happened over two hundred years ago, but the wound they’d made in our cultural history was left raw and festering, like a fault line that may begin trembling again at any moment.

From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros