rot
UK /ɹɒt/ · US /ɹɑt/ verb, noun
- verb (intransitive) To suffer decomposition due to biological action, especially by fungi or bacteria. “The apple left in the cupboard all that time had started to rot.”
- verb (intransitive) To decline in function or utility. “Your brain will rot if you spend so much time on the computer, Tony!”
- verb (ambitransitive) To (cause to) deteriorate in any way, as in morals; to corrupt.
- verb (transitive) To make putrid; to cause to be wholly or partially decomposed by natural processes. “to rot vegetable fiber”
- verb (intransitive, figurative) To spend a long period of time (in an unpleasant place or state). “to rot in prison”
- verb (transitive) To expose, as flax, to a process of maceration, etc., for the purpose of separating the fiber; to ret.
- verb (dated, slang) To talk nonsense.
- verb (transitive, slang, imperative) Damn; blast.
- noun The process of becoming rotten; putrefaction.
- noun Decaying matter.
- noun (chiefly in compounds) Any of several diseases in which breakdown of tissue occurs.
- noun (uncountable) Verbal nonsense. “You're talking rot! I don't believe a word.”
Synonyms
putrefy molder ROA putrefaction decomposition rotting bunk bunkum buncombe guff hogwash decompose moulder waste
Etymology
Inherited from Middle English roten, rotten, from Old English rotian (“to rot, become corrupted, ulcerate, putrefy”), from Proto-West Germanic *rotēn, from Proto-Germanic *rutāną (“to rot”).
Webster’s 1913
- verb 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.
- verb Figuratively: To perish slowly; to decay; to die; to become corrupt.
- verb To make putrid; to cause to be wholly or partially decomposed by natural processes; as, to rot vegetable fiber.
- verb To expose, as flax, to a process of maceration, etc., for the purpose of separating the fiber; to ret.
Etymology [OE. rotien, AS. rotian; akin to D. rotten, Prov. G. rotten, OHG. rozz, G. rösten to steep flax, Icel. rotna to rot, Sw. ruttna, Dan. raadne, Icel. rottin rotten. sq. root117. Cf. Ret, Rotten.]
Etymology [Cf. G. rotz glanders.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “rot”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details