rotten
part of speech
adjective (rotten, more rotten, most rotten); adverb (rotten — informal: spoiled rotten)
meaning for a pupil
1) Gone bad, soft and smelly because of decay (a rotten egg, rotten wood). tree →
2) (informal) Very bad, unpleasant or unfair (rotten weather, a rotten trick). tree →
3) Feeling ill or unhappy (I feel rotten). tree →
4) Morally bad, dishonest (rotten to the core). tree →
5) Spoiled rotten: given too much and allowed everything. tree →
sense in the lessons
In the Tanakh and Jewish tradition: Job uses "rotten wood" to show how weak the great crocodile-like Leviathan thinks iron is. In the primary lessons: In science, rotten food shows decay by microbes; rotten eggs smell because of a gas called hydrogen sulphide. In health and safety: never eat food that looks, smells or tastes rotten — it can make you ill; rotten branches and floorboards can break under you. In stories, «rotten» describes villains or bad luck. Phrases: rotten egg, rotten apple (one bad person), feel rotten, rotten luck, spoiled rotten, rotten to the core.
examples
- He esteemeth iron as straw, and brass as rotten wood. (Writings JOB.41.19, JPS 1917) tree →
- This banana is rotten — throw it in the compost. tree →
- Don't climb on that branch, it's rotten. tree →
- The room smelled of rotten eggs. tree →
- We had rotten weather on our camping trip. tree →
- I feel rotten — I think I have a cold. tree →
- That was a rotten thing to say to your friend. tree →
- The grandparents spoil the baby rotten. tree →
- Last one in the pool is a rotten egg! tree →
- "Rotten apples," answered the ostler; "a whole sackful of them. tree →
note
Spelling: double «t»: rotten. From the verb «rot». Safety: «when in doubt, throw it out» — don't taste food to check if it's rotten.
In the corpora
- He esteemeth iron as straw, and brass as rotten wood.
- Leaking gas smells like rotten eggs.
- Spoiled food may smell sour or rotten because bacteria (tiny living things too small to see) and moulds are breaking it down.
- The gas used in homes is given a smell like rotten eggs, so that a leak is easy to notice.
- Volcanoes release gases such as water vapour, carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide, and their sulfur gases can smell of rotten eggs.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «rotten» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.