fester

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

But it doesn’t get better if we just leave the bubble to fester.

From Salon ● Jun. 22, 2026

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

From "The Red Pony" by John Steinbeck

However, momentum has been lost and the danger is that the problem now just festers for days, months or even years.

From BBC ● Oct. 2, 2026

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

“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 “ignominy” of missing action, we are told, remained a “badge of shame” that festered for the rest of his life, “driving him to seek reckless vindication” in confrontations with other men of his class.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 4, 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

McCartney said confusion over the break-up had festered because the band's new manager Allen Klein - with whom he refused to align - said he had needed time to tie up some financial loose ends.

From BBC ● Dec. 2, 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

The thought of the man brought a wave of sorrow chased by anger, but she didn’t know who exactly to be angry at, so it just festered.

From "Scythe" by Neal Shusterman

One had a festering cut on his shin that he said he got from a fall on the rocks near the beach.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 19, 2026

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

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 15, 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

As I soon found out, anger at me had been festering in him ever since yesterday, and Aunt Loma’s fit brought it to a head.

From "Cold Sassy Tree" by Olive Ann Burns