Word Direct Answers

What does "rot" mean?

Rot: 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.

Additional senses

  1. 2.To make putrid; to cause to be wholly or partially decomposed by natural processes; as, to rot vegetable fiber.
  2. 3.To expose, as flax, to a process of maceration, etc., for the purpose of separating the fiber; to ret.
  3. 4.Process of rotting; decay; putrefaction.
  4. 5.(Bot.) A disease or decay in fruits, leaves, or wood, supposed to be caused by minute fungi. See Bitter rot, Black rot, etc., below.
  5. 6.Etym: [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 Glæosporium fructigenum. F. L. Scribner. -- Black rot (Bot.), a disease of grapevines, attacking the leaves and fruit, caused by the fungus Læstadia 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.

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