Hypertext Webster Gateway: "rotting"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Retting \Ret"ting\, n.
1. The act or process of preparing flax for use by soaking,
maceration, and kindred processes; -- also called
{rotting}. See {Ret}. --Ure.
2. A place where flax is retted; a rettery. --Ure.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Rot \Rot\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Rotted}; p. pr. & vb. n.
{Rotting}.] [OE. rotien, AS. rotian; akin to D. rotten, Prov.
G. rotten, OHG. rozz?n, G. r["o]sten to steep flax, Icel.
rotna to rot, Sw. ruttna, Dan. raadne, Icel. rottin rotten.
[root]117. Cf. {Ret}, {Rotten}.]
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. --Pope.
2. 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.
Syn: To putrefy; corrupt; decay; spoil.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
rotting
adj : becoming rotten; "a field covered with thousands of
decomposing bodies"; "John Brown's body lies
a-moldering in the grave"; "rotting animal flesh is
attractive to vultures" [syn: {decomposing}, {moldering},
{mouldering}]
n : (biology) decaying caused by bacterial or fungal action
[syn: {decomposition}, {rot}, {putrefaction}]
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