Carious
adj ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Having caries (bone or tooth decay); decayed, rotten.
"[I]f no Acid be contain’d in the Blood how comes it, I beſeech you, that in Carious or Virulent Ulcers, the Silver Probe becomes inſtantly of a Livid Colour, which can only be effected by an Acid not an Alkalous Menſtruum?"
- 1 (of teeth) affected with cavities or decay wordnet
Example
More examples"[I]f no Acid be contain’d in the Blood how comes it, I beſeech you, that in Carious or Virulent Ulcers, the Silver Probe becomes inſtantly of a Livid Colour, which can only be effected by an Acid not an Alkalous Menſtruum?"
Etymology
From French carieux (“carious”), from carie (“decay (of bone or teeth)”) (from Latin cariēs (“rot, rottenness, corruption”), from careō (“to lack, be deprived of”), from Proto-Italic *kazēō (“to lack”), possibly from Proto-Indo-European *ḱes- (“to cut”).) + French -eux (“-ous”) (from Latin -ōsus (“full of, prone to”), from Old Latin -ōsos, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *-went-, *-wont- + *-to-)).
Related phrases
More for "carious"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.