rotting
part of speech
verb, -ing form of rot (rot, rots, rotted, rotting); adjective (rotting)
meaning for a pupil
1) Rotting means going bad and breaking down, as dead plants, animals or food slowly decay. tree →
2) Rotting wood or teeth are being slowly damaged and becoming soft or weak. tree →
3) (figurative) Rotting can describe something getting worse slowly from neglect, like «left rotting in a shed». tree →
sense in the lessons
In science lessons, rotting is decomposition: bacteria, fungi and worms break down dead things and return nutrients to the soil, as in a compost heap. In everyday life rotting food smells bad and must not be eaten. Sugar can cause rotting teeth. Phrases: rotting food, rotting wood, rotting teeth, left to rot.
examples
- The apples were rotting on the ground. tree →
- A rotting log is home to many insects. tree →
- The bin smelled of rotting food. tree →
- Worms help rotting leaves turn into soil. tree →
- Too many sweets can lead to rotting teeth. tree →
- The old boat was left rotting on the beach. tree →
- Rotting food should be thrown away, not eaten. tree →
note
From «rot»: double the t (rotted, rotting). The adjective is «rotten». Rotting is a natural, useful process in nature, but rotting food can make you sick. Myth: «food rots only when it smells» — mould can be hidden, so check dates and look carefully.
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.
- Rotting is not only bad news.
- Soil is a mix of tiny rock pieces, rotting plant and animal matter called humus, water, air and living things.
- Rotting food in a landfill gives off methane, a gas that warms the planet.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «rotting» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.