rottenadj.n.adv.
/ˈrɒtn/, U.S. /ˈrɑtn/ A. adj.
I. Senses relating to decomposition.† 5. Medicine. Of a disease: = putrid adj. 2. Obsolete.
1.
a. Of the flesh or (part of) the body of a person or animal, or material of animal origin: that is in a state of decomposition; decayed; putrefied, putrid. Cf. rot v. 1a.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > condition of matter > bad condition of matter > [adjective] > rotten or putrefied
forrottedc897
foulOE
rotted?c1225
rottena1250
corruptc1380
enraged1398
putrefieda1413
purulent?a1425
putrid?a1425
ranka1425
rottenly1435
corrupped1533
corruptious1559
attainted1573
rot1573
putrefacted1574
baggage1576
tainted1577
pourryc1580
corruptive1593
putrilaginous1598
putrefactious1609
taint1620
putid1660
rottenish1691
septic1746
corrupted1807
mullocky1839
rotty1872
seething1875
the world > physical sensation > cleanness and dirtiness > dirtiness > corruption or putridness > [adjective] > corrupt or putrid
rottingeOE
foulOE
rotted?c1225
rottena1250
corruptc1380
putrefieda1413
putrid?a1425
ranka1425
rottenly1435
pourryc1450
moskin1531
corrupped1533
corrupting1567
attainted1573
rot1573
putrefacted1574
baggage1576
tainted1577
pury1602
putrefactious1609
putrefactive1610
taint1620
putrescent1624
festerous1628
putid1660
scandalous1676
rottenish1691
putrefying1746–7
septic1746
corrupted1807
decomposing1833
decomposed1846
seething1875
a1250 (?a1200) Ancrene Riwle (Titus) (1963) 17 To teren wið his bile stinkende, rotin [Nero roted] flesch.
c1300 Body & Soul (Laud Misc. 108) (1889) 39 (MED) Wenestou nou gete þe griþ, Þer þouȝ list roten in þe clay?
c1330 (?a1300) Arthour & Merlin (Auch.) (1973) 73 When ich am dede and roten in clay.
a1400 (c1303) R. Mannyng Handlyng Synne (Harl.) 6764 (MED) Mete..as sone as hyt ys yn þe ȝoten, Yn half a day þan ys hyt roten.
a1425 (c1395) Bible (Wycliffite, L.V.) (Royal) (1850) Num. v. 21 The Lord make thin hipe to wexe rotun [a1382 E.V. stynke; L. putrescere], and thi wombe swelle, and be brokun.
?a1425 MS Hunterian 95 f. 91v, in Middle Eng. Dict. at Roten Þe pacient moste forbere alle grete metes..& alle maner fische þat engender roten blode.
1490 W. Caxton tr. Foure Sonnes of Aymon (1885) xix. 439 I am sory that ye be not deed rotyn wythin the pryson.
1519 W. Horman Vulgaria iv. f. 39v As soone as thou arte vp lanke thy bely [L. leuato aluum] and spett out rotten fleme.
1533 J. Gau tr. C. Pedersen Richt Vay 81 The same body quhilk vesz grawit & rottine.
1598 W. Shakespeare Love's Labour's Lost v. ii. 653 The sweete War-man is dead and rotten . View more context for this quotation
1631 T. Dekker Match mee in London i. i. 65 A Comfitmaker with rotten teeth.
1651 T. Hobbes Leviathan iv. xliv. 348 To give life again to a dead man, and renew his inanimate and rotten Carkasse.
1692 Christ Exalted 79 Which I am sure have a worse Savour than the rottenest Egg in the Town.
1701 G. Stanhope tr. St. Bernard in tr. St. Augustine Pious Breathings 365 Its boasted charms shall sink into a rotten Carkass.
1778 Ann. Reg. 1777 179 Figure to yourself these feeding on scanty portions of rotten sardines.
1846 Med. Times 26 Sept. 506/1 Venison, instead of slowly acquiring a flavour by a few weeks' exposure, has regularly gone rotten.
1888 W. R. Gowers Man. Dis. Nerv. Syst. II. iv. 403 The sclerotic after death was rotten and discoloured.
1941 G. de Poncins & L. Galantière Kabloona (1942) Introd. 16 His own disgust, when first he slept in a crowded igloo, with its litter of salmon-bones and seal-meat, its stink of humanity and rotten fish, of carrion, and the circulating chamber-pot.
1987 W. Hagelund Whalers no More vi. 86 I damn near heaved up my supper when I saw this big, bloated, rotten rat floating belly-up in the brine.
2004 E. Reid D.B. i. 47 Fitch quickly moved the Dart..next to a collapsed deer carcass with something squirming around inside it, mining bits of rotten meat.
b. Of plants and plant products (esp. foodstuffs, wood), wooden structures, and other materials or objects: decayed; in a state of decomposition or disintegration. Cf. rot v. 1b.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > condition of matter > bad condition of matter > [adjective] > decayed
rottena1382
marcid?a1425
bada1450
decayed1528
carious1530
mouldy1576
perished1587
decrepit1594
moskered1612
marcidious1656
mortified1673
ampery1736
daddocky1790
a1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Douce 369(1)) (1850) Isa. x. 27 The ȝoc shal waxen al roten [L. computrescet] fro the face of oile.
c1400 ( in T. Wright Polit. Poems & Songs (1859) I. 365 (MED) The bag is ful of roton corne; So long ykep, hit is forlorne.
c1405 (c1380) G. Chaucer Second Nun's Tale (Hengwrt) (2003) l. 228 Kepeth ay wel thise corones..Ne neuere mo ne shal they roten be Ne lese hir swote sauour.
a1450 (c1375) G. Chaucer Anelida & Arcite (Tanner 346) (1878) l. 314 She that hem loueth shall hem fynde as fals As in a tempest is a roten mast.
a1500 (c1340) R. Rolle Psalter (Univ. Oxf. 64) (1884) i. §3. 7 Auerous men..gifes froit bot when it is rotyn & out of tyme.
1555 R. Eden tr. Peter Martyr of Angleria Decades of Newe Worlde ii. ii. f. 58 Those shyppes beinge nowe rotten for age.
1583 C. Hollyband Campo di Fior 131 I have but a few nuttes, and those are broken and rotten.
1621 R. Burton Anat. Melancholy ii. iii. v. 412 They start at the name of death, as a horse at a rotten post.
1697 J. Dryden tr. Virgil Georgics iv, in tr. Virgil Wks. 124 In the rotten Trunks of hollow Trees. View more context for this quotation
1760 R. Brown Compl. Farmer: Pt. 2 69 Rotten sawdust, or any other rotten wood.
1790 E. Burke Refl. Revol. in France 323 The true pedigree of property, and not rotten parchments and silly substitutions. View more context for this quotation
1813 Duke of Wellington Dispatches (1838) X. 378 There is one pontoon quite rotten.
1864 J. Percy Metall.: Iron & Steel 669 Iron puddled with limestone fettling is always rotten.
1882 Garden 16 Sept. 251/3 One very large Abele tree, rotten at the core.
1925 C. Wells Six Years in Malay Jungle x. 138 A durian tastes like a mixture of sweet custard, turpentine, and rotten onions, and it smells like a sewer.
1962 A. La Guma Walk in Night xvi. 77 He kicked aside boxes and warped and rotten planking as he ascended, upsetting some of the stacked rubbish.
2003 Org. Gardening Sept. 9/2 Replace any rotten stakes—wind-rock can cause major damage to fruit trees.
2005 J. M. Coetzee Slow Man xxix. 240 ‘Oh la la..!’ he and his sister would whisper..in the back of the van that smelled of rotten dahlia bulbs.
c. figurative and in figurative contexts.Frequently (esp. in earlier use) contrasted with ripe.rotten apple: see apple n. 8a.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > goodness and badness > wrongdoing > corruption > [adjective]
sickc960
foulOE
unwholec1000
thewlessa1327
corrupt1340
viciousc1340
unwholesomec1374
infecta1387
rustyc1390
unsound?a1400
rottenc1400
rotten-heartedc1405
cankereda1450
infectedc1449
wasted1483
depravate?1520
poisoned1529
deformed1555
poisonous1555
reprobate1557
corrupted1563
prave1564
base-minded1573
tainted1577
Gomorrhean1581
vice-like1589
depraved1593
debauched1598
deboshedc1598
tarish1601
sunk1602
speckled1603
deboist1604
diseased1608
ulcerous1611
vitial1614
debauchc1616
deboise1632
pravous1653
depravea1711
unhealthy1821
scrofulous1842
septic1914
c1400 (c1378) W. Langland Piers Plowman (Laud 581) (1869) B. xv. 99 (MED) Persones and prestes and prechoures of holy cherche..aren rote of þe riȝte faith..Ac þere þe rote is roten..Shal neure floure ne frute ne faire leef be grene.
c1405 (c1390) G. Chaucer Reeve's Tale (Hengwrt) (2003) l. 21 We olde men..Til we be roten kan we noght be rype.
?1542 H. Brinkelow Complaynt Roderyck Mors xxiii. sig. Gv Ye must fell down to the ground those rotten postys the bisshops.
1567 Compend. Bk. Godly Songs (1897) 186 O cankerit carionnis, and o ze rottin stakis.
1579 E. Spenser Shepheardes Cal. Dec. 118 I..follies nowe have gathered as too ripe, And cast hem out as rotten and unsoote.
a1616 W. Shakespeare As you like It (1623) iii. ii. 117 You'l be rotten ere you bee halfe ripe. View more context for this quotation
1654 R. Whitlock Ζωοτομία 36 What rotten Tenements are our Bodies?
1781 W. Cowper Progress of Error 288 Sin's rotten trunk, concealing its defects.
1866 C. H. Spurgeon Morning by Morning 120 We need winds and tempests to exercise our faith, to tear off the rotten bough of self-dependence, and to root us more firmly in Christ.
1955 R. E. Smith Failure Rom. Republic iii. xii. 119 He could give by his death a glow of idealism to the rotten corpse of the Republic, which hid from men's eyes the corruption that was beneath.
2007 V. Jewiss tr. R. Saviano Gomorrah i. 150 Forcella, the soft underbelly of Naples, a neighborhood shrouded in casbah mythology, the legendary rotten navel of the old city center.
2. Of air or water: smelling or tasting of rot; tainted; foul.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > cleanness and dirtiness > dirtiness > pollution or defilement > environmental pollution > [adjective]
foulOE
rotten?a1400
?a1400 (a1338) R. Mannyng Chron. (Petyt) (1996) i. l. 15679 Þorgh roten ayer & wikked wyndes, in alle stedes men died grete myndes.
a1425 (c1395) Bible (Wycliffite, L.V.) (Royal) (1850) Exod. vii. 21 The flood was rotun [a1382 E.V. stonk; L. computruitque fluvius], and Egipcians myȝten not drynke the water of the flood.
a1500 (?a1450) Gesta Romanorum (BL Add. 9066) (1879) 374 Be-fore hem all he caste oute the rotyn watur.
1565 T. Cooper Thesaurus Putor, a rotten sauour.
1567 Compend. Bk. Godly Songs (1897) 185 Stinkand pulis of euerie rottin synk.
1606 T. Dekker Seuen Deadly Sinnes London vii. sig. G2 What rotten stenches, and contagious damps would strike vp into thy nosthrils?
1710 T. Ruddiman in G. Douglas tr. Virgil Æneis (new ed.) Gloss. Adill, addle, rotten, stinking water.
1802 Med. & Physical Jrnl. 8 358 The room was on the ground floor, seemed very damp, and had a rotten smell.
1970 J. Dickey Deliverance iii. 141 We were by a sump of some kind, a blue-black seepage of rotten water.
1991 Here's Health Jan. 30/1 Harrogate's spa water tastes rotten and smells of sulphur, but has been used extensively over the years.
3.
a. Of ground, soil, etc.: lacking structure or cohesion; excessively soft, loose, or boggy; poorly oxygenated. Also figurative and in figurative contexts. Cf. putrid adj. 5. Also (as a desirable characteristic): full of organic matter, fertile.Sometimes difficult to distinguish from sense A. 4b, since the liver flukes which cause rot in sheep are carried by snails which favour boggy habitats.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > structure of the earth > constituent materials > earth or soil > soil qualities > [adjective] > soft or yielding
rotten?1440
mellow1531
sour1532
unctuous1555
heavy1577
omy1673
mellowed1798
sinky1828
tr. Palladius De re Rustica (Duke Humfrey) (1896) i. 64 A roten swerd [L. gleba putris] and welnygh blak..Suffisyng wel with gras.
1484 W. Caxton tr. G. de la Tour-Landry Bk. Knight of Tower (1971) xlix. 71 Soo they tooke their weye thorugh the medowe, where were old cloddes all roten.
1565 T. Cooper Thesaurus Cariosa terra, rotten earth quickly fallen to duste.
1577 B. Googe tr. C. Heresbach Foure Bks. Husbandry i. f. 24 The land..is..called pleasaunt ground, sweete, blacke, rotten, and mellowed, which are the signes of good ground.
1607 J. Norden Surueyors Dialogue iii. 113 They are taken in bogges, and such rotten grounds as cattle cannot feed upon.
1666 J. Evelyn Kalendarium Hortense (ed. 2) 64 The Layers will..strike root, being planted in a light loamy earth mix'd with excellent rotten soil and siefted.
1697 J. Dryden tr. Virgil Georgics i, in tr. Virgil Wks. 58 Sow Beans and Clover in a rotten Soyl. View more context for this quotation
1752 C. Littleton Let. 16 May in London Mag. (1845) Jan. 27 A mile further another rotten moor brings you to a Glyn or narrow Valley.
1770 L. Carter Diary 9 Feb. (1965) I. 353 I like my ride out yesterday as little as possible. The ground quite rotten and poachy.
1794 W. Godwin Things as they Are III. 302 Of what use are talents and sentiments in the corrupt wilderness of human society? It is a rank and rotten soil from which every finer shrub draws poison as it grows.
c1830 C. Wicksted Cheshire Hunt iv, in R. E. Egerton-Warburton Hunting Songs (new ed.) (1859) 186 Who's cramming his mare up yon steep rotten bank?
1868 Proc. 7th Ann. Session Indiana State Hort. Soc. Jan. 11 The Mountain Blue Grape, and those derived from it, delight in a light, porous, rotten, rich soil.
1887 W. D. Parish & W. F. Shaw Dict. Kentish Dial. 64 The ground is said to be givey when the frost breaks up and the roads become soft and rotten.
1897 M. Kingsley Trav. W. Afr. 607 I..began to fear that the rotten water-logged earth we were on might give way.
1922 D. H. Lawrence England my England 238 He could smell the cold, rotten clay that fouled up into the water.
1973 Philos. & Phenomenol. Res. 34 195 The grains of truth grow in the rotten soil of his pathological ideology.
2007 Daily Tel. (Nexis) 28 Apr. (Gardening section) 8 It grows in rotten soil, even quite deep shade where not much else will flourish.
b. Of rock or stone: soft, crumbly, or fragmented through decomposition or weathering. Cf. rottenstone n.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > structure of the earth > constituent materials > rock > [adjective] > partly decomposed
rotten1566
1566 J. Studley Eurybates in tr. Seneca Agamemnon sig. G.viii Amonge olde rotten ragged rocks thear lyes an vgly place.
1686 R. Plot Nat. Hist. Staffs. iii. 147 A roof of loose rotten stone without any certain beding or diping.
1776 Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 66 306 A kind of rotten schistus or slate.
1806 R. Forsyth Beauties Scotl. III. 112 Besides the hard sort, much is to be found of what is commonly called rotten whin.
1839 R. I. Murchison Silurian Syst. i. xxvii. 341 The subsoil..consists of rotten shale with scarcely the vestige of a solid bed of stone.
1869 Ann. Rep. Commissioner Agric. 1868 69 in U.S. Congress. Serial Set (40th Congr., 3rd Sess.: House of Representatives Executive Doc.) XV The sand marls of the rotten limestone group of this State.
1924 J. Buchan Three Hostages xxi. 306 The corrie face..seemed nothing but slabs and rotten rocks, while the few chimneys had ugly overhangs.
1952 W. J. Miller Introd. Hist. Geol. (ed. 6) xxiv. 446 During the long pre-Glacial time, rock decomposition must have progressed so far that rotten rock, including soils, had accumulated to considerable depths.
1997 T. Mackintosh-Smith Yemen (1999) iii. 67 The rock was fissured and rotten like the vertebrae of a decaying carcass.
c. Originally North American. Of ice: melting; disintegrating; full of holes or pools of water. Of snow: soft, yielding, esp. as forming a layer concealed beneath a firmer surface. Cf. rot v. 7.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > water > ice > [adjective] > melting
rotten1684
1684 I. Mather Ess. for Recording Illustrious Providences ii. 36 There was no hope of footing, no passage to either shore,..neither with their little Canoo, by reason of the Ice, nor without it, the Ice being thin and rotten, and full of holes.
a1710 P.-E. Radisson Voy. (1885) 133 We cutt the ice wth hattchetts & we found places where [it] was rotten, so we hazarded ourselves often to sinke downe to our necks.
1795 E. P. Simcoe Diary 7 Feb. (1911) 266 At Jacques Cartier the ice was so rotten I was obliged to go a league higher to cross the river with safety.
1860 J. Tyndall Glaciers of Alps i. viii. 60 Scattering with my axe..the rotten ice of the sharper crests.
1878 H. S. Wilson Alpine Ascents ii. 53 We wallow in soft rotten snow above our knees.
1894 Contemp. Rev. Aug. 218 Snow-slopes, of which one was rotten and avalanchy.
1916 N. Duncan Billy Topsail xvi. 120 [The ice] had yielded somewhat—it must have gone rotten—in the weather of that day.
1966 T. Armstrong et al. Illustr. Gloss. Snow & Ice Fig. 7 (caption) Rotten ice. The puddles on the surface have mostly joined together and in places have melted right through the ice.
1974 P. Petzoldt & R. C. Ringholz New Wilderness Handbk. xiii. 244 A combination of weather and temperature might create a layer of unstable, or ‘rotten’, snow sandwiched between layers of stable snow.
2002 J. Simpson Beckoning Silence (2003) i. 1 I moved tentatively over rotten honeycombed water ice.
4.
a. Of a sheep (or rarely other animal): affected with rot (rot n.1 3a). Now historical.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > ill health > animal disease or disorder > disorders of sheep > [adjective] > rot
rottena1500
rotted1825
a1500 (a1460) Towneley Plays (1897–1973) 107 Both befe and moton Of an ewe that was roton.
?1523 J. Fitzherbert Bk. Husbandry f. xxv Take the shepe..and if the skynne..be pale coloured & watry, than he is rotten.
?1523 J. Fitzherbert Bk. Husbandry f. xxv To knowe a rotten shepe.
1555 R. Eden tr. Peter Martyr of Angleria Decades of Newe Worlde i. iv. f. 19 They dyed yet dayly as it were rotton sheepe.
a1648 G. Gillespie Usefull Case of Conscience (1649) 8 We take care of the safety of our beasts, and would not to our knowledge suffer a scabbed or rotten sheep to infect the rest.
1697 W. Dampier New Voy. around World iii. 50 Many.., for want of being accustomed to such hardships, died like rotten Sheep.
1704 Dict. Rusticum at Rot If he [sc. the horse] be rotten, his Liver and Lights are so putrified, that they are not to be recovered.
?1780 W. Ellis Country Gentleman (ed. 5) ii. ii. 151 Two rotten Ewe Sheep, how they knit and recovered, one by eating Ivy Leaves, and the other by Change of Pasture.
1810 R. Parkinson Treat. Breeding & Managem. Live Stock I. 422 The nineteen [sheep] all died rotten.
1844 C. W. Johnson in H. Stephens Bk. of Farm II. 45 Mr. Rusher..purchased, for a mere trifle, 20 sheep, decidedly rotten.
1915 W. J. Malden Brit. Sheep & Shepherding xxxi. 217 It does not, however, pay to keep rotten sheep.
2007 L. Lear Beatrix Potter 324 In order to breed healthy lambs, Beatrix had first to solve the problem of wet fields, stream pollution, bad drains and ‘rotten’ sheep.
b. Characterized or marked by the occurrence of rot in sheep. Now rare.
ΘΚΠ
the world > health and disease > ill health > animal disease or disorder > disorders of sheep > [adjective] > rot > characterized by
rotten1603
1603 T. Jackson Davids Pastorall Poeme i. 15 A good Shepheard will haue care to feed his sheepe, not in rotten soyle, and wasting grasse, but in good, wholsome & green pastures.
1657 W. Greenwood Curia Comitatus Rediviva 152 (heading) For pasturing of sheep in a rotten pasture, by reason whereof they dyed.
1749 W. Ellis Compl. Syst. Improvem. Sheep ii. ii. 156 Whereas this Farmer thought himself most in the Right, in feeding his rotten Sheep on the most rotten Ground.
1799 Agric. Surv. Lincs. 329 In rotten years, the sheep that feed on the salt marsh..sell very high.
1810 R. Parkinson Treat. Breeding & Managem. Live Stock I. 425 The farm..was deemed so rotten, that the oldest inhabitants advised my father..not to keep sheep.
1890 J. H. Steel Treat. Dis. Sheep v. 170 Agriculturalists should lessen the number of rotten places on their farms.
1904 Jrnl. Dept. Agric. W. Austral. 10 185 These plots of ‘rotten’ land form dangerous centres from which a wide distribution of the fluke may take place in the near future.
ΚΠ
1568 W. Turner Herbal iii. 3 Rotten agues, of which the iaundes is commed.
1600 E. Blount tr. G. F. di Conestaggio Hist. Uniting Portugall to Castill 238 At which time Queen Anne his wife fell sicke of a rotten feuer.
1609 W. Shakespeare Troilus & Cressida v. i. 17 The rotten diseases of the south. View more context for this quotation
1671 W. Salmon Synopsis Medicinæ iii. lxxxv. 737 The putrid or rotten Feaver.
1715 J. Delacoste tr. H. Boerhaave Aphorisms 168 If the said Fever lasts several days, it is called a Continual, not Rotten Fever.
1785 G. Mensforth Young Student's Guide Astrol. 58 Pimples in the face, palpitation or trembling of the heart,..stinking breaths, catarrh, rotten fevers, &c.
II. Extended senses.
6.
a. Morally, socially, or politically corrupt; characterized by a lack of integrity or moral virtue; wicked, dishonest.
ΘΚΠ
society > morality > moral evil > moral or spiritual degeneration > [adjective] > corrupted or corrupt
foul-stinkingOE
unwholesomec1374
corruptc1380
rotten1395
infecta1398
unsound?a1400
rotten-heartedc1405
infectedc1449
fly-blown1528
reprobate1531
corrupped1533
corrupted1563
poisoned1567
abusive?1585
debauched1598
deboshedc1598
deboist1604
debauchc1616
deboise1632
scrofulous1842
Remonstr. against Romish Corruptions (Titus) (1851) 16 (MED) What almese is it of lordis to geue seculer lordshipis to prelatis and religiouse..whiche lordshipis maken hem to ceesse or to be doumb in gostli office and to wexe rooten in here drit.
c1405 (c1390) G. Chaucer Parson's Tale (Hengwrt) (2003) §387 Alle we ben of o nature roten and corrupt bothe riche & pouere.
a1425 J. Wyclif Sel. Eng. Wks. (1869) I. 7 Þei ben divydid fro þe comoun maner of lyvynge bi hir rotun rytys.
1548 Hall's Vnion: Henry VII f. vi So perdurable..that they can neuer be clerely extirpate..out of their rotten hartes.
1555 in J. Strype Eccl. Memorials (1824) III. App. xl. 111 And root up the rotten race of the ungodly.
1661 J. Davies Civil Warres 372 Purging his army by casting off such officers as he conceived rotten.
1718 Free-thinker No. 14. 1 He is Rotten at the Core, and his Soul is Dishonest.
1797 W. Godwin Enquirer i. xii. 103 This rotten morality will not abide..examination.
1851 ‘L. Mariotti’ Italy in 1848 61 A scheme of nationality having for its head a rotten papacy.
1871 Times 14 June 12/3 These human torches scattered sparks at which the old Roman world, with all its rotten splendour, burst into flame.
1890 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Colonial Reformer (1891) 148 The whole rotten sham which calls itself a prosperous colony.
1925 Woman's World (Chicago) Apr. 3/3 Our courts are rotten and ruled by grafters.
1970 J. Wanshel Disintegration of James Cherry iii. 11 James is naughty,..Mrs. Cherry, rotten to the core, bad through and through.
2006 A. Steffen et al. Worldchanging (2008) 440/2 Their governments are ridiculously rotten and commit flagitious human rights violations.
b. Of language: morally offensive; obscene. Now regional (chiefly U.S. and Australian).
ΚΠ
1589 J. Batt Portraiture Hypocrisie 72 There is no filthy concupiscence of adultery, no rotten wordes of vncleannes,..no falling away from the liuing God for such vanities.
1593 W. Perkins Direct. for Govt. Tongue iii. 12 Rotten speach, that is, all such talke as is voide of grace, which is the heart and pith of our speach.
1628 D. Calderwood Pastor & Prelate 65 Lesser offences,..as lying..rash and common swearing, rotten talking [etc.].
1722 R. Crossinge Pract. Disc. conc. Charity v. 128 Such corrupt and rotten Talk, as is offensive to all modest and chast Ears, and tends to defile the Minds of those with whom they converse.
1895 Month June 199 These ignominious, insane, and rotten phrases about having no dispensation from the Pope.
1919 Machinists' Monthly Jrnl. Sept. 848/2 He signed and sent..the dirtiest, meanest, most obscene and rotten words that ever burned themselves into paper.
2007 Daily Tel. (Austral.) (Nexis) 4 Jan. 4 Viewers [were] appalled at the network for broadcasting simulated sex and rotten language.
7. Not based on sound or reliable evidence or reasoning; unsound, fallacious.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > knowledge > conformity with what is known, truth > disregard for truth, falsehood > error in belief or opinion > [adjective]
falsec1175
ungroundedc1380
ungroundable1395
erroneousc1400
wrongc1400
rotten1529
mistaken1540
sinistral1542
sinistrous1562
errorful1570
unsolid1593
unsound1595
misgrounded1606
mistaking1631
errorous1633
unbottomed1641
erratile1652
heterodox1654
unbased1860
misfelt1935
fuzzy1937
flaky1972
1529 T. More Dyaloge Dyuers Maters iii. xvi. f. xciiiiv/1 They seke oute..euery roten reason that they can fynd, and set them forth solemply to ye shew, thoughe fyue of those reasons be not worth a fygge.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Coriolanus (1623) i. xi. 23 Nor sleepe, nor sanctuary,..shall lift vp Their rotten Priuiledge, and Custome 'gainst My hate to Martius. View more context for this quotation
1658 F. Osborne Mem. Reigns Elizabeth & James in Wks. (1673) 501 Upon a hope (though a rotten one) of a future preferment.
1772 Lett. conc. Present State Eng. xii. 139 A small state full of people must depend on trade, for their wealth and power; this..is accepting a precarious existence; and living on the most rotten of all national dependencies.
1831 Asiatic Jrnl. & Monthly Reg. 4 i. 262 The very witnesses the Reviewer has selected to patch up his own rotten argument.
1875 Westm. Rev. Oct. 512 To say that it is worse than nonsense is to speak mildly of a book which abounds with reckless misstatements and rotten reasoning.
1919 J. Buchan Mr. Standfast i. iv. 69 I flatter myself I put my case well, for I had got up every rotten argument and I borrowed largely from Launcelot.
1999 Tampa Tribune (Nexis) 4 Oct. (Metro section) 1 In theory you would think the old auditorium would have been packed. I guess that's a pretty rotten theory... There were about 30 interested people.
8. Of weather or climate: damp, wet, rainy.Now sometimes influenced by sense A. 9a.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > weather and the atmosphere > weather > wet weather > [adjective] > wet (of weather, place, or time)
wetc893
moista1398
waterya1398
moistya1500
waterish1545
washy1566
rotten1567
slabby1653
weety1658
late1673
fresh1790
slottery1790
soft1812
givey1829
juicy1837
sploshy1838
sposhy1842
slip-sloppya1845
splishy-splashyc1850
shabby1853
soppy1872
sappy1885
1567 G. Turberville tr. G. B. Spagnoli Eglogs vi. f. 64 What makes in Sommer time so many rotten shoures?
1600 B. Jonson Every Man out of his Humor i. iii. sig. Diiv Expectation Of rotten weather, and vnseason'd howers. View more context for this quotation
1612 M. Drayton Poly-olbion iii. 42 Where mists and rotten fogs Hang in the gloomie thicks, and make vnstedfast bogs.
1742 O. Sedgewick Universal Masquerade II. iii. 68 O what a blessed Religion is that, said I, that can set a Price upon Iniquity, and retail it as they do rotten Weathers in Scotland.
1828 P. Hawker Diary (1893) I. 347 A rotten pinching white frost.
1844 H. Stephens Bk. of Farm I. 300 A raw rotten fog after frost.
1881 Folk-lore Rec. 4 131 A Saturday's rainbow is sure to be followed by a week of rotten (rainy) weather.
1921 J. Dos Passos Three Soldiers ii. i. 61 ‘It's this rotten climate,’ whispered Bill Grey, in the middle of a fit of coughing.
1999 Bella 25 May 43/1 ‘Rotten weather, isn't it?’ she commented.
9. colloquial.
a. Very bad or unpleasant; nasty, terrible, awful; (also of a person) unwell. Also as an intensifier.Also sometimes, esp. in such collocations as rotten luck, rotten shame, etc., in a weakened sense.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > goodness and badness > inferiority or baseness > worthlessness > [adjective]
forcouthc888
goodlesseOE
undoughtya1225
voidc1380
bare1399
stark naught1528
worthilessa1542
queer1567
worthless1573
hilding1577
baggage1580
arrant1581
offal1588
lorel1590
losel1601
ragamuffin1602
loselled1606
loselly1611
valuelessa1616
ragamuffa1626
good-for-nothing1706
ne'er-do-well1773
rotten1813
neat1824
scamping1832
good-for-naught1835
no good1838
scampish1847
ne'er-do-wellish1890
no good1904
upter1919
never-do-well1933
the mind > emotion > suffering > displeasure > [adjective] > unpleasant
loatha700
unsweetc890
grimlyc893
unquemeOE
un-i-quemeOE
evila1131
sourc1175
illc1220
unhightlyc1275
unwelcomec1325
unblithec1330
unnetc1330
unrekena1350
unagreeablec1374
uncouthc1380
unsavouryc1380
displeasantc1386
unlikinga1398
ungaina1400
crabbedc1400
unlovelyc1400
displeasing1401
eschewc1420
unsoot1420
mislikinga1425
unlikelya1425
unlustya1425
fastidiousc1425
unpleasantc1430
displicable1471
unthankfulc1475
displeasant1481
uneasy1483
unpleasinga1500
unfaring1513
badc1530
malpleasant?1533
noisome1542
thanklessa1547
ungrate1548
untoothsome1548
ungreeable1550
contrary1561
disagreeable1570
offensible1575
offensive1576
naughty1578
delightlessa1586
undelightful1585
unwisheda1586
unpleasurable1587
undelightsomec1595
dislikeful1596
disliking1596
ungrateful1596
unsweet?a1600
distastive1600
impleasing1602
distasting1603
distasteful1607
unsightly1608
undelectable1610
disgustful1611
unrelishing1611
waspisha1616
undeliciousa1618
unwished-for1617
disrelishing1631
unenjoyed1643
unjoyous1645
mirya1652
unwelcomed1651
unpleasivea1656
sweet1656
injucund1657
insuave1657
unpalatable1658
unhandsome1660
undesirable1667
disrelishablea1670
uncouthsome1684
shocking1703
nasty1705
embittering1746
indelectable1751
undelightinga1774
nice and ——1796
unenjoyablea1797
ungenial1796
uncomplacent1805
ungracious1807
bitter1810
rotten1813
uncongenial1813
quarrelsome1825
grimy1833
nice1836
unrelished1863
bloody1867
unbewitching1876
ferocious1877
displeasurable1879
rebarbative1892
charming1893
crook1898
naar1900
peppery1901
negative1902
poisonous1906
off-putting1935
unsympathetic1937
piggy1942
funky1946
umpty1948
pooey1967
minging1970
Scrooge-like1976
sucky1984
stank1991
stanky1991
1813 Royal Mil. Chron. May 59 Calling him..a damned rotten, emaciated, good for nothing scoundrel, or words to that effect.
1860 J. G. Holland Miss Gilbert's Career xxvii. 471 It's a rotten shame that I ain't pious.
1881 R. L. Stevenson Let. 5 Dec. (1923) II. 98 You may imagine how rotten I have been feeling, and feel now.
1888 W. E. Henley & R. L. Stevenson Deacon Brodie (rev. ed.) iv. i. 74 Just like you. Forgot the rotten centrebit.
1914 G. B. Shaw Fanny's Last Play i, in Misalliance 177 I was copped in the Dock Road myself: rotten luck, wasn't it?
1930 Punch 16 Apr. 425/1 Had a rotten night. My electric blanket fused and I had to get up to mend it.
1952 E. O'Neill Moon for Misbegotten ii. 107 You rotten bastard!
1959 I. Opie & P. Opie Lore & Lang. Schoolchildren ix. 161 Juvenile repugnance continues to be expressed by the old standbys..rotten, rotten shame, rotten swiz.
1972 J. Wilson Hide & Seek viii. 151 I got six months suspended sentence last time and fined twenty rotten quid.
1989 San Diego Tribune (Nexis) 24 Jan. a1 The flu bug is infecting young and old, rendering its victims fever-ridden and feeling rotten for a week or more.
2007 A. Eglin Water Lily Cross 245 The rotten thing is that I'm nowhere nearer to finding Stewart than I was on day one.
b. slang (originally and chiefly Australian). Drunk. Frequently in to get rotten.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > drink > thirst > excess in drinking > [adjective] > drunk
fordrunkenc897
drunkena1050
cup-shottenc1330
drunka1400
inebriate1497
overseenc1500
liquor1509
fou1535
nase?1536
full1554
intoxicate1554
tippled1564
intoxicated1576
pepst1577
overflown1579
whip-cat1582
pottical1586
cup-shota1593
fox-drunk1592
lion-drunk1592
nappy1592
sack-sopped1593
in drink1598
disguiseda1600
drink-drowned1600
daggeda1605
pot-shotten1604
tap-shackled1604
high1607
bumpsy1611
foxed1611
in one's cups1611
liquored1611
love-pot1611
pot-sick1611
whift1611
owl-eyed1613
fapa1616
hota1616
inebriated1615
reeling ripea1616
in one's (or the) pots1618
scratched1622
high-flown?1624
pot-shot1627
temulentive1628
ebrious1629
temulent1629
jug-bitten1630
pot-shaken1630
toxed1635
bene-bowsiea1637
swilled1637
paid1638
soaken1651
temulentious1652
flagonal1653
fuddled1656
cut1673
nazzy1673
concerned1678
whittled1694
suckey1699
well-oiled1701
tippeda1708
tow-row1709
wet1709
swash1711
strut1718
cocked1737
cockeyed1737
jagged1737
moon-eyed1737
rocky1737
soaked1737
soft1737
stewed1737
stiff1737
muckibus1756
groggy1770
muzzeda1788
muzzya1795
slewed1801
lumpy1810
lushy1811
pissed1812
blue1813
lush1819
malty1819
sprung1821
three sheets in the wind1821
obfuscated1822
moppy1823
ripe1823
mixed1825
queer1826
rosined1828
shot in the neck1830
tight1830
rummy1834
inebrious1837
mizzled1840
obflisticated1840
grogged1842
pickled1842
swizzled1843
hit under the wing1844
obfusticatedc1844
ebriate1847
pixilated1848
boozed1850
ploughed1853
squiffy?1855
buffy1858
elephant trunk1859
scammered1859
gassed1863
fly-blown1864
rotten1864
shot1864
ebriose1871
shicker1872
parlatic1877
miraculous1879
under the influence1879
ginned1881
shickered1883
boiled1886
mosy1887
to be loaded for bear(s)1888
squiffeda1890
loaded1890
oversparred1890
sozzled1892
tanked1893
orey-eyed1895
up the (also a) pole1897
woozy1897
toxic1899
polluted1900
lit-up1902
on (also upon) one's ear1903
pie-eyed1903
pifflicated1905
piped1906
spiflicated1906
jingled1908
skimished1908
tin hat1909
canned1910
pipped1911
lit1912
peloothered1914
molo1916
shick1916
zigzag1916
blotto1917
oiled-up1918
stung1919
stunned1919
bottled1922
potted1922
rotto1922
puggled1923
puggle1925
fried1926
crocked1927
fluthered1927
lubricated1927
whiffled1927
liquefied1928
steamed1929
mirackc1930
overshot1931
swacked1932
looped1934
stocious1937
whistled1938
sauced1939
mashed1942
plonked1943
stone1945
juiced1946
buzzed1952
jazzed1955
schnockered1955
honkers1957
skunked1958
bombed1959
zonked1959
bevvied1960
mokus1960
snockered1961
plotzed1962
over the limit1966
the worse for wear1966
wasted1968
wired1970
zoned1971
blasted1972
Brahms and Liszt?1972
funked up1976
trousered1977
motherless1980
tired and emotional1981
ratted1982
rat-arsed1984
wazzed1990
mullered1993
twatted1993
bollocksed1994
lashed1996
1864 Drinkamania 8 In ‘lush’ we are not merely ripe, But only—nearly rotten.
1941 S. J. Baker Pop. Dict. Austral. Slang 61 Rotten, to get, to become exceedingly drunk.
1953 T. A. G. Hungerford Riverslake 135 Monday to-morrow—blasted work again. God, could I get rotten!
1971 J. Famechon Fammo 145 A reporter from one of the Sydney papers—he was the last to leave, rotten.
2005 A. Gibbons Blood Pressure 56 I've done more since I met you than I have with Mum in years. She just sits in front of the telly and gets rotten.
c. Of a low quality or standard; poor, useless; (of a person) lacking skill or talent.
ΘΚΠ
the world > action or operation > ability > inability > unskilfulness > [adjective]
craftlessOE
unslyc1275
unexperta1425
incrafty?1520
imperite?1550
unskilful1565
skilless1573
artless1586
inexpert1598
unarted1603
boisterous1609
unhandsomea1616
unwieldy1666
unartful1683
undexterous1688
unaccomplished1709
not so (also not too) hot1845
rotten1867
one-fingered1868
button pushing1896
1867 Aunt Judy's May-Day Vol. 81 Who would talk such a rotten language as French well if he could help it? but this is English—quite another thing.
1895 Westm. Gaz. 20 Apr. 7/2 Outside the competition they were, comparatively speaking, a rotten team.
1918 C. G. Norris Salt iii. 285 ‘Can you run a typewriter?’ ‘I used to fool with one at college. I'm pretty rotten at it.’
1921 J. Huneker Variations 223 I had played for Liszt. Rotten playing, of course, yet a historical fact.
1941 Bulletin (Sydney) 16 July 16/1 When you see the mongs as mud-fat as they are y' can bet the missus is a rotten cook an' has to throw a lot of stuff to 'em.
1975 R. Davies World of Wonders (1977) i. viii. 105 A rabble of acts..which played for rotten pay in the worst vaude houses.
2002 S. Donovan Knock me off my Feet v. 100 My God, is the poor woman daft or just a rotten judge of character?
10. Printing. Imperfect, unclear. Now rare.
ΚΠ
1884 C. Klackner Proofs & Prints 8 A poor printer will..rub the ink in the delicate lines out, too, and produce a broken or rotten impression.
1888 C. T. Jacobi Printers' Vocab. 120 Scabby, a term applied to uneven and rotten colour in printing.
1930 B. Brown Lithogr. for Artists vii. 53 To get a light print we must, by under-inking or under-pressure, get simply an imperfect and rotten impression.
B. n.
That which is rotten (chiefly with the); decaying or putrid matter; (also occasionally) a decaying or putrid part or thing. Now chiefly figurative.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > condition of matter > bad condition of matter > [noun] > decay or decaying > that which is decayed > a decayed spot or part
rotten?c1425
fret1545
?c1425 tr. Guy de Chauliac Grande Chirurgie (Paris) (1971) 99 Departe þe roten [?a1425 N.Y. Acad. Med. þe corrupt; L. corruptem] fro þe hole wiþ an actual cauterie.
c1487 J. Skelton tr. Diodorus Siculus Bibliotheca Historica iv. 249 When thenhabitauntes therby apparceive how this tree that vsuall is haunted of this eliphaunt is sore enfeblished and full of filthy roten, they dig away the erthe from the rote.
1597 P. Lowe Whole Course Chirurg. vii. v. sig. Z3 Arsenic or vitriol roman is good to separate the rotten from the whole.
1613 W. Browne Britannia's Pastorals I. v. 100 O euer, euer rest vpon that word Which doth assure thee, though his two edg'd sword Be drawne in Iustice 'gainst thy sinfull soule, To seperate the rotten from the whole.
1629 G. Chapman Iustification Nero To Rdr. sig. A3v To pick out (like the rotten out of Apples..) apoore instance or two.
1722 in C. B. Gunn Rec. Baron Court Stitchill (1905) 184 One shilling sterling for pulling and cutting of rottins and breaking down of dykes.
1808 Cobbett's Weekly Polit. Reg. 9 July 41 A year's war and hardship and danger will winnow the people; will divide the grain from the chaff; the hollow from the solid, the rotten from the sound.
1875 Ld. Tennyson Queen Mary ii. ii. 71 My Lord, cut out the rotten from your apple.
1916 R. W. Livingstone Def. Classical Educ. iii. 101 A power which can reduce all things to their constituent elements, separate the rotten from the sound, and..create the world anew.
2003 A. C. Gaulden Signs & Wonders iii. xxi. 151 There is no better way to sort the rotten from the ripe in your family than to conduct an honest and fearless inventory.
C. adv.
colloquial. As an intensifier. To an extreme degree; thoroughly, totally. to spoil rotten: to spoil or indulge a person excessively.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > wholeness > completeness > [adverb] > completely or thoroughly
welleOE
furtherlyc1175
through and through?1316
perfectlya1400
radically?a1425
roundly?a1425
substantiallya1425
perfectc1425
thoroughly1442
substantiallyc1449
throughlya1450
naitlyc1450
through1472
surely?a1475
cleanc1475
through stitch1573
fundamentally1587
down1616
perfectedly1692
minutely1796
homea1825
good1834
rotten1840
out1971
full on1979
1840 H. J. Battle of Stillwater ii. i, in America's Lost Plays (1941) XIV. 123 If they hedn't burnt up the house and come so rotten nigh killin' of old Adam Cotton.
1880 ‘M. Twain’ Tramp Abroad xxiii. 226 I'm most rotten certain 'bout that.
1918 Lyceum Dec. 16/1 Being on somebody's pedestal every evening..he gets, in the language of a fellow's wife, ‘spoiled rotten’.
1922 J. Joyce Ulysses iii. xviii. [Penelope] 714 It was rotten cold too that winter.
1964 Daily Mail 14 Dec. 1/3 The other girls sent me up rotten when they heard about my date.
1996 Sugar June 3/2 You fancy him rotten—now learn how to nab him.
2005 R. Bowen Evan Blessed xxviii. 238 They spoil her rotten. Give her everything she wants, they do. Not like my mum.
Phrases
P1. For various proverbial phrases with rotten apple see apple n. Phrases 2.
P2. something is rotten in the state of Denmark, and variants (after Shakespeare's use in quot. 1603): there is a corrupt element underlying a situation; (also in weakened sense) something is incorrect or unsatisfactory.
ΚΠ
1603 W. Shakespeare Hamlet i. iv. 67 Something is rotten in the state of Denmarke.
1786 European Mag., & London Rev. Mar. 212/1 That the man who lost us great part of America..should be..unimpeached..; surely this betrays something very rotten in the State of Denmark.
1883 Central Law Jrnl. 17 38/2 The public at large, have..lost confidence in our criminal courts. ‘Something is rotten in the State of Denmark.’ A radical reform is inevitable.
1963 H. B. Curry Found. Math. Logic i. 8 There are those who maintain that there is something rotten in the state of mathematics and that large parts of classical analysis must be discarded.
2009 J. Feather Husband's Wicked Ways i. 5 If an individual couldn't feel safe a mere twenty yards from her own front door, then something was seriously rotten in the state of Denmark.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > language > malediction > [adjective] > ribald or scurrilous
foulOE
ribaldya1438
ribaldousc1440
villainous1470
ribald?a1500
ribaldious?1518
ribaldry1519
ribaldish?1533
rabulous1538
reprobriousa1539
ribaldrous1565
scurrile1567
profane1568
swearing1569
ribaldly1570
scurrilous1576
tarry1579
Fescennine verses1601
scogginly1620
ribaldrious1633
rotten in one's head1640
Billingsgate1652
promiscuous1753
blackguarding1789
blue1832
the world > action or operation > undertaking > preparation > [adjective] > prepared or ready > mature or matured > excessively
rotten in one's head1640
1640 J. Shirley Constant Maid iii. ii My part is rotten in my head, doubt not.
1640 J. Shirley Humorous Courtier iii. i Pray let me have All these directions in manuscript. I'll not see her Till they be rotten in my head.
P4. colloquial. rotten with ——: abounding in (the specified quality or thing). Frequently in rotten with money: very rich.
ΚΠ
1850 Spirit of Times (N.Y.) 16 Mar. 42/3 One of the bystanders, late from the mines and perfectly ‘rotten’ with gold dust.
1871 W. H. L. Barnes Solid Silver ii. ii. 32 She's poor and I'm rich now, and when the Governor is translated I'll just be rotten with money.
1921 G. Chittenden Victim of His Vision in B. Williams O. Henry Prize Stories (1922) 84 Obeah—that's black magic; and voodoo—that's snake-worship. The island is rotten with 'em—rotten with 'em.
1990 W. O. Mitchell Roses are Difficult Here xi. 146 Well, all they got to do is look at our ten acres rotten with wild oats an' sow thistle an' mustard—they get feelin' better right away.
2002 R. Murphy Kick (2003) 193 Sure he was rotten with money, but what did he know about sailing? Sunshine fisherman. Still, he wanted to take the tiller from me to show the whole world he could sail.
P5. Australian slang. to knock rotten: to kill or stun; to knock out.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > death > killing > kill [verb (transitive)]
swevec725
quelmeOE
slayc893
quelleOE
of-falleOE
ofslayeOE
aquellc950
ayeteeOE
spillc950
beliveOE
to bring (also do) of (one's) life-dayOE
fordoa1000
forfarea1000
asweveOE
drepeOE
forleseOE
martyrOE
to do (also i-do, draw) of lifeOE
bringc1175
off-quellc1175
quenchc1175
forswelta1225
adeadc1225
to bring of daysc1225
to do to deathc1225
to draw (a person) to deathc1225
murder?c1225
aslayc1275
forferec1275
to lay to ground, to earth (Sc. at eird)c1275
martyrc1300
strangle1303
destroya1325
misdoa1325
killc1330
tailc1330
to take the life of (also fro)c1330
enda1340
to kill to (into, unto) death1362
brittena1375
deadc1374
to ding to deathc1380
mortifya1382
perisha1387
to dight to death1393
colea1400
fella1400
kill out (away, down, up)a1400
to slay up or downa1400
swelta1400
voida1400
deliverc1400
starvec1425
jugylc1440
morta1450
to bring to, on, or upon (one's) bierc1480
to put offc1485
to-slaya1500
to make away with1502
to put (a person or thing) to silencec1503
rida1513
to put downa1525
to hang out of the way1528
dispatch?1529
strikea1535
occidea1538
to firk to death, (out) of lifec1540
to fling to deathc1540
extinct1548
to make out of the way1551
to fet offa1556
to cut offc1565
to make away?1566
occise1575
spoil1578
senda1586
to put away1588
exanimate1593
unmortalize1593
speed1594
unlive1594
execute1597
dislive1598
extinguish1598
to lay along1599
to make hence1605
conclude1606
kill off1607
disanimate1609
feeze1609
to smite, stab in, under the fifth rib1611
to kill dead1615
transporta1616
spatch1616
to take off1619
mactate1623
to make meat of1632
to turn up1642
inanimate1647
pop1649
enecate1657
cadaverate1658
expedite1678
to make dog's meat of1679
to make mincemeat of1709
sluice1749
finisha1753
royna1770
still1778
do1780
deaden1807
deathifyc1810
to lay out1829
cool1833
to use up1833
puckeroo1840
to rub out1840
cadaverize1841
to put under the sod1847
suicide1852
outkill1860
to fix1875
to put under1879
corpse1884
stiffen1888
tip1891
to do away with1899
to take out1900
stretch1902
red-light1906
huff1919
to knock rotten1919
skittle1919
liquidate1924
clip1927
to set over1931
creasea1935
ice1941
lose1942
to put to sleep1942
zap1942
hit1955
to take down1967
wax1968
trash1973
ace1975
the world > physical sensation > physical sensibility > physical insensibility > dullness of sense perception > dull (the senses) [verb (transitive)] > stun
asweveOE
stonyc1330
astone1340
astony1340
stouna1400
stounda1400
stuna1400
stoynec1450
dozen1487
astonish1530
benumb1530
daunt1581
dammisha1598
still1778
silence1785
to knock, lay (out), etc., cold1829
to lay out1891
out1896
wooden1904
to knock rotten1919
1919 W. H. Downing Digger Dial. 31 Knocked rotten, killed or stunned.
1941 Coast to Coast 179 ‘He pulled it down on top of him,’ continued Jo... ‘It knocked him rotten.’
2008 Daily Tel. (Austral.) (Nexis) 29 Nov. 93 Leak was knocked rotten by the fall.
P6. colloquial (chiefly British). something rotten: = sense C. Cf. something adv. 2c.
ΚΠ
1944 Amer. Mag. Apr. 31/2 Aunt Ada really loved me, and spoiled me something rotten.
1966 D. Pinner Fanghorn iii. 67 All those years of decomposition takes it out of you something rotten.
1979 Observer 2 Sept. 15/6 Mo's twin..seems to fancy him something rotten.
1989 in R. Graef Talking Blues vi. 202 It used to rattle his cage something rotten.
1994 J. Coe What a Carve Up! (1995) 32 She spoils him... Spoils him something rotten.
2005 C. Sambrook Hide & Seek xii. 119 These ingrowing toenails are troubling me something rotten.
Compounds
C1. Parasynthetic, as rotten-chested, rotten-fleshed, rotten-planked, rotten-throated, rotten-timbered, etc.
ΚΠ
1598 E. Guilpin Skialetheia v. sig. D5 Yon rotten-throated slaues Engarlanded with coney-catching knaues.
1604 T. Middleton Blacke Bk. sig. D3 I walkte close by them laughing and coughing like a rotten-lungde Usurer
1818 J. Keats Endymion ii. 54 Many old rotten-timber'd boats there be.
1855 R. Browning Master Hugues xxix At the foot of your rotten-planked, rat-riddled stairs.
1908 T. Hardy Dynasts: Pt. 3rd iv. vi. 163 We kings? Kings of the underground country, then, by this time, if we hadn't been too rotten-fleshed to follow the drum.
1969 L. Michaels Going Places 63 I..coughed again, a rasping, rotten-chested hack.
1988 F. Chin Chinaman Pacific 54 She..muttered something in her rotten-throated voice.
2003 W. Penn Panama Conspiracy 180 They were hustled across the rotten-planked veranda of a dilapidated thatched hut.
2006 Explor. Children's Lit. 16 i. 55/1 The return of the repressed in the form of shambling, rotten-fleshed dead bodies.
C2. With adjectives and past participles, as rotten-dry, rotten-red, rotten-sweet, rotten-woven.
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1601 P. Holland tr. Pliny Hist. World I. xii. xii. 365 That they bee not brittle, and rather ripe drie, than sere or rotten-drie.
1861 L. L. Noble After Icebergs 319 Stumps of all..colors, from rotten-red and brown down to coal-black.
1868 G. M. Hopkins Jrnls. & Papers (1959) 184 In the train I was noticing that strange rotten-woven cloud.
1947 M. Morris in B. James Austral. Short Stories (1963) 348 She stood over the bin inhaling the queer rotten-sweet smell of the blossoms.
1999 Scotsman (Nexis) 17 July 34 Above the rotten-sweet smell of the river mud.
C3.
rotten-boned adj. (a) having decaying bones; (b) figurative weak; lacking (moral) strength; corrupt.
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1887 J. Milligan Vocab. Dial. Aboriginal Tribes Tasmania in E. M. Curr Austral. Race III. App. 634 Aged (literally, rotten-boned), Tinna-trioura-tick.
1912 D. H. Lawrence Let. 3 July (1962) I. 134 My cursed, rotten-boned, pappy hearted countrymen, why was I sent to them.
1994 Excalibur 28 Sept. 13/5 Society was dropped onto our shoulder prematurely aged and rotten-boned.
rotten borough n. chiefly British History a borough whose constituency has dwindled severely or (in certain cases) ceased to exist altogether, but which still retains the power to elect a Member of Parliament; in later use also applied to electoral areas subject to similar circumstances elsewhere.Formerly the choice of M.P. was typically determined by an interested party. These boroughs were abolished by the Reform Acts of 1832 and 1867. Cf. pocket borough n.
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1765 St. James Chron. 23 Nov. 4/1 There begins to be a Call-out against rotten Boroughs.
1852 Literary World (N.Y.) 17 Jan. 52/3 In modern times ‘Old Sarum’ obtained notoriety as one of the worst of the rotten boroughs—returning two members to Parliament, although without an inhabitant.
1920 New Outlook 30 June 416/1 It was the rotten borough in the South and the attempt to seat delegates in the National Convention..that was the immediate cause of the Republican political revolution of 1912.
2002 A. N. Wilson Victorians i. 10 Even with the abolition of rotten boroughs, the new Parliament was representative of the people only in the most notional sense.
rotten-fustianed adj. clothed in worn-out fustian; ragged.
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1850 R. S. Surtees Soapey Sponge's Sporting Tour xli, in New Monthly Mag. Apr. 536 All the scowling, rotten-fustianed, baggy-pocketed scamps of the country.
rotten-livered adj. having a liver that is diseased by rot or (in humans) by excessive use of alcohol; (figurative) morally corrupt.
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1881 Jrnl. Royal Agric. Soc. 2nd Ser. 17 192 A rotten-livered sheep gradually gets worse, and..should be killed at once to save further loss.
a1898 W. C. Brann Brann Iconoclast (1905) 99 Rotten-livered rounders requested respectable women to meet them at unfrequented places and wear camp-meeting lingerie.
1929 R. Graves Poems 20 Lame, rotten-livered, this and that canaille.
1985 N. Stahl & D. Horan Buried Man vii. 44 He wondered whether he would end up a rotten-livered swiller like so many of the others.
rotten-rich adj. (and n.) (a) adj. rich or succulent to a degree approaching rottenness (obsolete); (b) adj. extremely wealthy, sometimes with implications of moral corruption; also as n.
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1840 R. Browning Sordello ii. 731 Fruits like the fig~tree's, rathe-ripe, rotten-rich.
a1881 S. Lanier Poems (1884) 175 Bankers, warehousemen, and sich Was fatt'nin' on the planter, and Tennessy was rotten-rich A-raisin' meat and corn.
1907 G. L. Crockett Plunderer 154 Brown circulated among the floaters,..and asked them if it wasn't just as well for the town to be making money as it was for the rotten rich.
1998 People (Nexis) 4 Jan. 35 She also has a new rotten-rich boss drooling over her.
rotten ripe adj. ripe to a degree approaching rottenness; extremely ripe; overripe; frequently figurative.
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1564 A. Bacon tr. J. Jewel Apol. Churche Eng. sig. F.iiij These thinges..are now waxen old and rotten ripe [L. antiqua..et putida].
a1703 T. Tryon in W. Ellis Mod. Husb. (1743) vi. 13 They do..let their Wheat, Barley, and Oats, stand till it be over-ripe, or rather rotten-ripe.
1869 J. R. Lowell Glance behind Curtain vi The time is ripe, and rotten-ripe, for change.
1974 S. Hook Pragmatism & Tragic Sense of Life ii. xiii. 199 Conditions were permitted to become so rotten-ripe that the maggots of totalitarianism found a favorable environment.
2008 Mobile Reg. (Alabama) (Nexis) 11 July d1 While darkest and softest is best, as a practical matter you'll want to pick most fruits just a tiny bit shy of deliciously rotten ripe.
rotten-roasted adj. (of meat) thoroughly roasted; overdone.In quot. 1987 (of a person): having a liking for such meat.
ΘΚΠ
the world > food and drink > food > food manufacture and preparation > cooking > [adjective] > roasting, roasted, or roastable > over-roasted
over-roasteda1616
rotten-roasteda1627
a1627 T. Middleton More Dissemblers besides Women iv. ii, in 2 New Playes (1657) 52 [Ducks] all rotten rosted, and stuft with Onions.
a1704 T. Brown Comical View London & Westm. in Legacy for Ladies (1705) 120 Summon'd by pensive Sound of Horn to rotten roasted Mutton at Twelve.
1823 C. Lamb Christ's Hosp. in Elia 28 Rather more savoury..portions of the same flesh, rotten-roasted or rare, on the Tuesdays.
1987 W. E. Stegner Crossing to Safety (2002) 183 I am a rotten-roasted westerner and hate raw meat.
rotten-toothed adj. having rotten teeth.
ΚΠ
1607 T. Dekker & J. Webster North-ward Hoe i. sig. B The rotten toothd rascall, will for sixe pence fetch any whore to his maisters customers.
1725 N. Bailey tr. Erasmus All Familiar Colloquies 141 A long-visag'd, Scald-headed, bald-pated, hollow ey'd, snumb-nos'd, wide-mouth'd, rotten-tooth'd, stuttering, scabby-bearded, hump-back'd, gor-belly'd, bandy-legg'd Fellow.
1872 A. D. Crabtre Funny Side of Physic xxv. 636 Cancerous mouths, whiskey mouths, syphilitic and ulcerous mouths, rotten-toothed mouths—splendid!
1962 Hudson Rev. 14 502 He waved a fattish, sad-faced youth and a hawk-nosed and rotten-toothed older fellow to his side.
2009 J. Talton Pain Nurse xii. 129 As always, Lennie greeted her with a rotten-toothed smile beneath the large crimson nose and its ever-expanding map of broken veins.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2011; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
rottenv.
/ˈrɒtn/, U.S. /ˈrɑtn/, Caribbean English /ˈrɑt(ə)n/ Chiefly U.S. regional and Caribbean in later use.
1. intransitive. To become rotten (literal and figurative); to rot. Also with off, out, into, etc.
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > condition of matter > bad condition of matter > deteriorate in condition [verb (intransitive)] > rot or putrefy
forrota900
foulOE
rotOE
rank?a1300
corrumpc1374
to-rota1382
putrefya1400
mourkenc1400
corruptc1405
festerc1475
rottena1500
decay1574
rankle1612
tainta1616
moth1624
ret1846
wrox1847
a1500 (?c1450) Merlin 466 (MED) He wolde hir not forsake for no man, till that she stanke and rotened [Fr. pouri] a-bove erthe.
1526 Bible (Tyndale) Jude 8 Trees rotten in authum.
1558 W. Bullein Govt. Healthe sig. A.vi Your lyfe is present, but death maketh haste, Festinate by surfite, I tell you in ryme, Example to the epicures, rotten into slime.
1647 S. Rutherford Christ Dying 144 When they are dead, when their cause is judged, and they rotten into powder in the grave, they are redeemed.
1706 tr. L. Bordelon Managem. Tongue 262 My Mouth rottens with a Cancer; my Throat rattles.
1747 C. Cibber Char. & Conduct Cicero iv. 89 When she [sc. Rome] had ravag'd the World about her, she savagely fed upon her own Bowels, till she once more rottened to the Corruption she came from.
1852 Meyer's Universum 1 209 But though the ancient stem will rotten—in the far West will its transplanted shoots grow up to unrivalled greatness.
1869 R. B. McCrea Lost amid Fogs x. 141 The acquaintance..grew into fierce jealousy, and..rottened into maddening hate.
1898 Rep. Court of Appeals Kentucky 100 184 The rubber will rotten in time,..which renders the joint dangerous.
1909 Dial. Notes 3 364 That roof will rotten out in less 'n a year.
1996 R. Allsopp Dict. Caribbean Eng. Usage (at cited word) Your finger will rotten off if you point it at people's graves.
2004 A. Anandan Vanilla 46 All the beans in the bunch will rotten in severe cases of this rot.
2. transitive. To make rotten (literal and figurative); to affect with rot; to spoil.
ΘΚΠ
the world > physical sensation > cleanness and dirtiness > dirtiness > corruption or putridness > make corrupt or putrid [verb (transitive)]
corrump1340
corruptc1384
putrefya1400
fadec1400
rotc1405
corrup1483
rotten1569
attaint1573
carrionize1593
putrefact1598
ranken1599
decay1626
wrox1649
the world > matter > condition of matter > bad condition of matter > cause bad condition in [verb (transitive)] > cause to rot or putrefy
corrump1340
corruptc1384
putrefya1400
fadec1400
rotc1405
rotten1569
carrionize1593
putrefact1598
ranken1599
decay1626
wrox1649
ret1846
1569 T. Norton To Queenes Deceiued Subj. sig. A.iij The rancour and sore of your dysorders hath by this time growne..so rottened with your own paines & calamity, that you are not altogether vnripe & vnready to receiue the means of your healing.
1612 J. Speed Theatre of Empire of Great Brit. i. i. 2/2 How the Romans found it, held it, and left it, as times ripened and rottened their successe.
1661 A. Campbell Instr. to Son 61 Nothing sooner corrupts or rottens friendship, then an overhasty entertaining of it, like præcoce fruit that's ripe before its season.
1722 Mem. Lit. (ed. 2) VII. 119 That malignant Moisture..rottens the Skin wherein the Grain in enclosed, and alters the very Substance of the Grain.
1827 Chateau of Leaspach I. vii. 191 The principal beam has not been repaired since the rain has rottened it, and might tumble upon the head of his eccellenza.
1861 W. W. Hall Sleep xiii. 158 The most revolting of human maladies,..liable..to eat the flesh away, rottening even the bones, until life becomes a drawn-out torture.
1989 B. Flaws Endometriosis & Infertility & Trad. Chinese Med. 43 As the digestate is ‘cooked’ by the stomach, it is ‘rottened and ripened’.
2004 M. Lanagan Black Juice (2006) 140 I look to Nan, the little lump of her in the bed. Her sickness rottens the air.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2011; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.n.adv.a1250
v.a1500