rotting

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rot

(rŏt)

v. rot·ted, rot·ting, rots

v.intr.

1. To undergo decomposition, especially organic decomposition; decay. See Synonyms at decay.

a. To become damaged, weakened, or useless because of decay: The beams had rotted away.

b. To disappear or fall by decaying: One could see the blackened areas where the branches had rotted off.

3. To deteriorate through neglect or inactivity; languish or decline: "He upset Alice by calling Washington ... a sink of boredom and saying he was rotting there" (John Dos Passos).

4. To decay morally; become degenerate.

v.tr.

To cause to decompose or decay.

1. The process of rotting or the condition of being rotten: The rot spread quickly, rendering the bridge unsafe even for pedestrians.

2. Foot rot.

3. Any of several plant diseases characterized by the breakdown of tissue and caused by various bacteria, fungi, or oomycetes.

4. Pointless talk; nonsense: She always talks such rot.

5. Archaic Any of various diseases causing the decay of flesh.

[Middle English roten, from Old English rotian.]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

rotting

(ˈrɒtɪŋ)

adj

decaying as a result of bacterial or fungal action

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

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Noun

rotting - (biology) the process of decay caused by bacterial or fungal action

putrefaction, rot, decomposition

biological science, biology - the science that studies living organisms

decay - the process of gradually becoming inferior

Translations

rotting

[ˈrɒtɪŋ] ADJ → podrido, que se está pudriendo

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

rotting

[ˈrɒtɪŋ] adj [leaves, fruit, teeth] → qui pourrit

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

rotting

adj meat, food → verfaulend; wood also → modrig; carcass, bones also → verwesend; teeth → faul; fruit → faulig

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

rotting

[ˈrɒtɪŋ] adj → in putrefazione

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References in classic literature ?

Saxon could not repress a shudder.--As Mary had rotted, she thought; as Bert and all the rest had rotted; as Tom and all the rest were rotting.

Some become larger capitalists; some go into the professions; the rest spend the money and start rotting when it's gone, and if it lasts their life-time their children do the rotting for them."

And the Americans will spend the money and by the second generation start rotting in the cities, as you and your husband would have rotted if you hadn't got out."

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They were recognized as graves by the discolored stones or rotting boards at head and foot, leaning at all angles, some prostrate; by the ruined picket fences surrounding them; or, infrequently, by the mound itself showing its gravel through the fallen leaves.

All about were evidences of a furious struggle; small sprouts of poison-oak were bent and denuded of leaf and bark; dead and rotting leaves had been pushed into heaps and ridges on both sides of the legs by the action of other feet than theirs; alongside the hips were unmistakable impressions of human knees.

Passing the end of the slight elevation of earth upon which the dead man's head and shoulders lay, his foot struck some hard substance under the rotting forest leaves, and he took the trouble to kick it into view.

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"All the time when we were waiting, he wasn't a bit keen and kept on rotting about the good times he might have been having in London, and what a fearful country we were stranded in, till he almost gave me the blues, and if there hadn't been some jolly good shooting and a few nice chaps up at the Fort, I should have been miserable.

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But as it was, the thing that struck me with keenest force was the enormous waste of labour to which this sombre wilderness of rotting paper testified.

View in context

The "rotting" was the most humiliating part of the process which followed, though, in our case, this was done in clear running water, and the "crackling" the most uncomfortable.

View in context

A: The issue of rotting posts lies in their tree growth rings and their location.