Adjacent Words

Rot definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

ROT, v.i.
To lose the natural cohesion and organization of parts, as animal and vegetable substances; to be decomposed and resolved into its original component parts by the natural process, or the gradual operation of heat and air; to putrefy.
ROT, v.t. To make putrid; to cause to be decomposed by the natural operation of air and heat; to bring to corruption.
ROT, n.
1. A fatal distemper incident to sheep, usually supposed to be owing to wet seasons and moist pastures. The immediate cause of the mortality of sheep, in this disease, is found to be a great number of small animals, called flukes, (Fascida,) found in the liver, and supposed to be produced from eggs swallowed with their food.
2. Putrefaction; putrid decay.
3. Dry rot, in timber, the decay of the wood without the access of water.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a state of decay usually accompanied by an offensive odor [syn: putrefaction, rot]
2: (biology) the process of decay caused by bacterial or fungal action [syn: decomposition, rot, rotting, putrefaction]
3: unacceptable behavior (especially ludicrously false statements) [syn: bunk, bunkum, buncombe, guff, rot, hogwash] v
1: break down; "The bodies decomposed in the heat" [syn: decompose, rot, molder, moulder]
2: become physically weaker; "Political prisoners are wasting away in many prisons all over the world" [syn: waste, rot]

Merriam Webster's

I. verb (rotted; rotting) Etymology: Middle English roten, from Old English rotian; akin to Old High German r?zz?n to rot Date: before 12th century intransitive verb 1. a. to undergo decomposition from the action of bacteria or fungi b. to become unsound or weak (as from use or chemical action) 2. a. to go to ruin ; deteriorate b. to become morally corrupt ; degenerate transitive verb to cause to decompose or deteriorate with or as if with rot Synonyms: see decay II. noun Date: 14th century 1. a. the process of rotting ; the state of being rotten ; decay b. something rotten or rotting 2. a. archaic a wasting putrescent disease b. any of several parasitic diseases especially of sheep marked by necrosis and wasting c. plant disease marked by breakdown of tissues and caused especially by fungi or bacteria 3. nonsense — often used interjectionally

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v., n., & int. --v. (rotted, rotting) 1 intr. a (of animal or vegetable matter) lose its original form by the chemical action of bacteria, fungi, etc.; decay. b (foll. by off, away) crumble or drop from a stem etc. through decomposition. 2 intr. a (of society, institutions, etc.) gradually perish from lack of vigour or use. b (of a prisoner etc.) waste away (left to rot in prison); (of a person) languish. 3 tr. cause to rot, make rotten. 4 tr. Brit. sl. tease, abuse, denigrate. 5 intr. Brit. sl. joke. --n. 1 the process or state of rotting. 2 sl. nonsense; an absurd or foolish statement, argument, or proposal. 3 a sudden series of (usu. unaccountable) failures; a rapid decline in standards etc. (a rot set in; we must try to stop the rot). 4 (often prec. by the) a virulent liver-disease of sheep. --int. expressing incredulity or ridicule. Phrases and idioms: rot-gut sl. cheap harmful alcoholic liquor. Etymology: OE rotian (v.): (n.) ME, perh. f. Scand.: cf. Icel., Norw. rot

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Rot Rot, v. t. 1. To make putrid; to cause to be wholly or partially decomposed by natural processes; as, to rot vegetable fiber. 2. To expose, as flax, to a process of maceration, etc., for the purpose of separating the fiber; to ret.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Rot Rot, n. 1. Process of rotting; decay; putrefaction. 2. (Bot.) A disease or decay in fruits, leaves, or wood, supposed to be caused by minute fungi. See Bitter rot, Black rot, etc., below. 3. [Cf. G. rotz glanders.] A fatal distemper which attacks sheep and sometimes other animals. It is due to the presence of a parasitic worm in the liver or gall bladder. See 1st Fluke, 2. His cattle must of rot and murrain die. --Milton. Bitter rot (Bot.), a disease of apples, caused by the fungus Gl[ae]osporium fructigenum. --F. L. Scribner. Black rot (Bot.), a disease of grapevines, attacking the leaves and fruit, caused by the fungus L[ae]stadia Bidwellii. --F. L. Scribner. Dry rot (Bot.) See under Dry. Grinder's rot (Med.) See under Grinder. Potato rot. (Bot.) See under Potato. White rot (Bot.), a disease of grapes, first appearing in whitish pustules on the fruit, caused by the fungus Coniothyrium diplodiella. --F. L. Scribner.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Rot Rot, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Rotted; p. pr. & vb. n. Rotting.] [OE. rotien, AS. rotian; akin to D. rotten, Prov. G. rotten, OHG. rozz?n, G. r["o]sten to steep flax, Icel. rotna to rot, Sw. ruttna, Dan. raadne, Icel. rottin rotten. [root]117. Cf. Ret, Rotten.] 1. To undergo a process common to organic substances by which they lose the cohesion of their parts and pass through certain chemical changes, giving off usually in some stages of the process more or less offensive odors; to become decomposed by a natural process; to putrefy; to decay. Fixed like a plant on his peculiar spot, To draw nutrition, propagate, and rot. --Pope. 2. Figuratively: To perish slowly; to decay; to die; to become corrupt. Four of the sufferers were left to rot in irons. --Macaulay. Rot, poor bachelor, in your club. --Thackeray. Syn: To putrefy; corrupt; decay; spoil.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(rots, rotting, rotted) 1. When food, wood, or another substance rots, or when something rots it, it becomes softer and is gradually destroyed. If we don't unload it soon, the grain will start rotting in the silos... Sugary canned drinks rot your teeth. VERB: V, V n 2. If there is rot in something, especially something that is made of wood, parts of it have decayed and fallen apart. Investigations had revealed extensive rot in the beams under the ground floor... 3. You can use the rot to refer to the way something gradually gets worse. For example, if you are talking about the time when the rot set in, you are talking about the time when a situation began to get steadily worse and worse. In many schools, the rot is beginning to set in. Standards are falling all the time... N-SING: the N 4. If you say that someone is being left to rot in a particular place, especially in a prison, you mean that they are being left there and their physical and mental condition is being allowed to get worse and worse. Most governments simply leave the long-term jobless to rot on the dole. VERB: V prep 5. see also dry rot

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

I. n. Putrefaction, corruption, decomposition, decay. II. v. n. 1. Putrefy, corrupt, decompose, decay, spoil. 2. Moulder, rust.

Moby Thesaurus

Texas fever, anthrax, aphthous fever, baloney, bighead, bilge, black quarter, blackleg, blackwater, blah, blah-blah, blast, blight, blind staggers, bloody flux, bop, bosh, break down, break up, broken wind, bull, bullshit, bunk, bunkum, cancer, canker, caries, carrion, cattle plague, charbon, corrupt, corruption, crap, crumble, crumble into dust, dandruff, debase, debauch, decay, decline, decompose, decomposition, degenerate, demoralize, deprave, descend, disimprove, disintegrate, distemper, dry rot, excrement, fall into decay, fall to pieces, fester, filth, flapdoodle, foot-and-mouth disease, foul matter, foulness, fungus, furfur, gangrene, gapes, gas, glanders, go bad, go to pieces, guff, gup, heaves, hog cholera, hogwash, hokum, hooey, hoof-and-mouth disease, hot air, hydrophobia, liver rot, loco, loco disease, locoism, mad staggers, malarkey, malignant catarrh, malignant catarrhal fever, malignant pustule, mange, megrims, mess, mildew, milzbrand, mold, molder, moonshine, mortification, mortify, moth, moth and rust, muck, mucus, must, necrose, necrosis, obscenity, ordure, paratuberculosis, pervert, pest, piffle, pip, poppycock, pseudotuberculosis, pus, putrefaction, putrefy, putresce, putrescence, putrid matter, putridity, putridness, quarter evil, rabies, rancidity, rancidness, rankle, rankness, retrograde, rinderpest, rottenness, rubbish, rust, scabies, scat, scurf, scuz, sheep rot, shit, sink, slime, slough, smut, snot, sordes, sphacelate, sphacelation, sphacelus, splenic fever, spoil, spoilage, staggers, stain, stringhalt, suppurate, swine dysentery, taint, tommyrot, tooth decay, trash, tripe, turn, vitiate, warp, wind, worm, worsen