rotten

[ rot-n ]

adjective

, rot·ten·er, rot·ten·est.

1. decomposing or decaying; putrid; tainted, foul, or bad-smelling.

   Synonyms: rank, fetid

   Antonyms: sound

2. corrupt or morally offensive.

   Synonyms: immoral

   Antonyms: moral

3. wretchedly bad, unpleasant, or unsatisfactory; miserable:

   a rotten piece of work; a rotten day at the office.

4. contemptible; despicable:

   a rotten little liar; a rotten trick.

   Synonyms: treacherous, unwholesome, disgusting

5. (of soil, rocks, etc.) soft, yielding, or friable as the result of decomposition.
6. Australian Slang. drunk.

rotten

/ ˈrɒtən /

adjective

1. affected with rot; decomposing, decaying, or putrid
2. breaking up, esp through age or hard use; disintegrating

   rotten ironwork

3. morally despicable or corrupt
4. untrustworthy, disloyal, or treacherous
5. informal.
   unpleasant, unfortunate, or nasty

   rotten weather

   rotten luck

6. informal.
   unsatisfactory or poor

   rotten workmanship

7. informal.
   miserably unwell
8. informal.
   distressed, uncomfortable, and embarrassed

   I felt rotten when I told him to go

9. (of rocks, soils, etc) soft and crumbling, esp as a result of weathering
10. slang.
    intoxicated; drunk

adverb

1. extremely; very much

   men fancy her rotten

Derived Forms

• ˈrottenness, noun
• ˈrottenly, adverb

Other Words From

• rotten·ly adverb
• rotten·ness noun
• half-rotten adjective
• un·rotten adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of rotten¹

1175–1225; Middle English roten < Old Norse rotinn, past participle of an unrecorded verb meaning “to rot”

Word History and Origins

Origin of rotten¹

C13: from Old Norse rottin ; related to Old English rotian to rot ¹

Example Sentences

Nonetheless, Win at All Costs often feels less like an exposé than an attempt to fuse previously published reporting into a macro-narrative about how there’s something rotten in the state of Beaverton.

From Outside Online

At Bumpass Hell in California’s Lassen Volcanic National Park, the ground is literally boiling, and the aroma of rotten eggs fills the air.

From Science News

They let our ancestors “sniff out rotten food or potential poisons,” she explains.

From Science News For Students

THL is not just a single bad apple but part of an expansive industry that’s rotten to its core.

From Fortune

Reports out of Los Angeles indicate mail delays have led to rotten food and even dead animals.

From Voice of San Diego

We are a nation in which a few rotten apples are spoiling different barrels.

From The Daily Beast

It has grown from a rotten root—striving to replace human judgment with detailed dictates.

From The Daily Beast

Which to me, after the initial explosion of the Sex Pistols, always made Rotten kind of boring.

From The Daily Beast

“I believe we are in the hour of the debacle of the institutions, they cannot be any more rotten,” said Padre Goyo.

From The Daily Beast

Yeonmi had been hospitalized at the time for a stomach illness, likely from her diet of rotten potatoes.

From The Daily Beast

But this alliance is rotten, and cannot endure; the Western men are no partizans of slavery.

From Project Gutenberg

Sounds rotten, but that's their style; and you've been through the mill at home enough to know what it is to be knifed socially.

From Project Gutenberg

Clodd tells us that one cubic inch of rotten stone contains 41 thousand million vegetable skeletons of diatoms.

From Project Gutenberg

It is like the eating of a smothered fire into rotten timber in that it is noiseless and without haste.

From Project Gutenberg

That we should attack one week and the French another week is rotten tactically; but, practically, we have no option.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• corrupt
• disgusting
• moldy
• noxious
• overripe
• putrid
• rancid
• rotting
• sour
• spoiled
• stale