rot
part of speech
verb (rot, rots, rotted, rotting); noun (rot — uncountable)
meaning for a pupil
1) To go soft, bad and break down slowly because of bacteria and fungi, like old fruit, wood or dead leaves; to decay. tree →
2) To make something decay (Sugar rots your teeth). tree →
3) Rot (noun): the decay itself, or a part that has gone bad. tree →
4) (informal, old British) Nonsense (Don't talk rot!). tree →
sense in the lessons
In science, decomposers (bacteria, fungi, worms) make dead plants and animals rot, putting nutrients back into the soil — that is how compost works. In health: sugar and plaque rot teeth; food rots faster when warm, so keep it in the fridge. In safety: rotten wood in trees, fences and bridges can break. Phrases: rot away, left to rot, tooth rot, dry rot, brain rot (slang for too much silly screen time).
examples
- The apples left on the ground began to rot. tree →
- Fungi and bacteria help dead leaves rot. tree →
- Sweets can rot your teeth if you don't brush. tree →
- The old wooden fence was rotting at the bottom. tree →
- Food rots faster in a warm room than in the fridge. tree →
- Worms help rot down the vegetable peelings in the compost. tree →
- «What rot!» said Grandpa, laughing. tree →
note
Past: rotted, rotting (double «t»). Adjective: rotten. «Rot» and «decay» mean almost the same; «decompose» is the science word.
In the corpora
- Butterflies and flies taste with their feet, so a red admiral landing on a rotting plum is tasting it as it lands.
- Bread fills ducks with little goodness and rotting leftovers dirty the pond; oats, peas, sweetcorn or duck food are better.
- Rhino horns are made of keratin, the same stuff as hair and nails, so they rot away and rarely become fossils.
- Rotting is not only bad news.
- "Dad's car rots" hides the vegetable CARROT across "car" and "rots".
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «rot» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.