ROT • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Rot

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noun

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.

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."

Bitter rot (Bot.), a disease of apples, caused by the fungus Glaeosporium fructigenum.

Black rot (Bot.), a disease of grapevines, attacking the leaves and fruit, caused by the fungus Laestadia Bidwellii.

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.

verb

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.

Rot v. i. (past & past part. rotted; pres. part. rotting)

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."

2.

Figuratively: To perish slowly; to decay; to die; to become corrupt. "Four of the sufferers were left to rot in irons." "Rot, poor bachelor, in your club."

Synonyms: To putrefy; corrupt; decay; spoil.

See images of 'Rot'

Etymology of 'Rot'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Rot" Quotes from Famous Books

... of the sky, more of the infinite possibilities of the region of truth which is the matrix of fact; we should go marching down the hill of life like a battered but still bannered army on its way home. But alas! how often we rot, instead of march, towards the grave! "If he be not rotten before he die," said Hamlet's absolute grave digger.—If the year was dying around Lady Florimel, as she looked, like a deathless sun from a window of the skies, it was dying at least ...

— Malcolm • George MacDonald

... the mists drive overhead, the snowflakes flutter down in blinding disarray; daily the mail comes in later from the top of the pass; people peer through their windows and foresee no end but an entire seclusion from Europe, and death by gradual dry-rot, each in his indifferent inn; and when at last the storm goes and the sun comes again, behold a world of unpolluted snow, glossy like fur, bright like daylight, a joy to wallowing dogs and cheerful to the souls of men. Or perhaps from across storied and malarious ...

— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. XXII (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson

... God that came down from heaven to give life to the world.' Do I want an outward object for my intellect? I have it in Him. Does my heart feel with its tendrils, which have no eyes at the ends of them, after something round which it may twine, and not fear that the prop shall ever rot or be cut down or pulled up? Jesus Christ is the home of love in which the dove may fold its wings and be at rest. Do I want (and I do if I am not a fool) an absolute and authoritative command to ...

— Expositions of Holy Scripture - St. John Chapters I to XIV • Alexander Maclaren

... He rode over to Swanslea with Cecil, and when he said it was six miles off, she called it four; what he termed bare, marshy, and dreary, was in her eyes open and free; his swamp was her lake; and she ran about discovering charms and capabilities where he saw nothing but damp and dry rot, and, above ...

— The Three Brides • Charlotte M. Yonge

... "Rot!" growls Whity. "You know I was sent up here to do this blooming spread of yours. What sort of fake is ...

— On With Torchy • Sewell Ford

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