fester

That's why it needs sorting out now because it's such a bad look if it's allowed to fester.

From BBC ● Oct. 11, 2026

It’s better to get a baseline as to where your balance stands — and strengthen it, as needed — than let an unknown problem fester and progress.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 18, 2026

Given your reaction, I don’t believe it’s a good idea to let this fester.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 1, 2026

Psychiatric researchers are referring to the confluence of 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. 28, 2026

His father knew every place in the boy where a word would fester.

From "The Red Pony" by John Steinbeck

Farmers and herders clash over land in the centre of the country while a simmering separatist movement festers in the southeast.

From Barron's ● Aug. 26, 2026

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

From MarketWatch ● Mar. 26, 2026

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

“A reservoir of resentment grows and festers and it shatters the trust and confidence that members of the community have in law enforcement,” Armour said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 16, 2022

Now everything resonates, sticks like a splinter, festers.

From "We Are Okay" by Nina LaCour

The current generation of players have decided now is the time to act on a disagreement that has festered for much of the past two decades.

From BBC ● May 27, 2026

But an uneasy tension festered behind the fanfare.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 30, 2026

This zinging back-and-forth is also in evidence in the film, in which these sisters metaphorically tear each other apart and then try to heal the wounds that have festered.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 9, 2024

Wilson’s lead is a working-class Black man, a former Negro league superstar whose dreams festered when baseball’s color barrier prevented him from rising into the big leagues.

From Salon ● Sep. 12, 2024

During that first summer and fall of sandy congestion and wind-blown boredom, the bitterness accumulated, the rage festered in hundreds of tarpapered cubicles like ours.

From "Farewell to Manzanar" by Jeanne Houston

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

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 15, 2026

Mountains of festering trash blight the streets of the capital, as dump trucks don’t have fuel to pick up the waste.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 1, 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

Such incidents have resurfaced the Indonesian public’s festering distrust of the police force, said Jacqui Baker, a scholar of Indonesian security and policing at Murdoch University in Perth, Australia.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 4, 2025

I see the lie festering in your teeth.What do I see, boys?

From "Angela's Ashes: A Memoir" by Frank McCourt