▪ I. ˈrotting, vbl. n.
Also 1, 3 rotung, 4 roting, 4–5 rotyng(e, rooting, 5 Sc. rutting, etc.
[f. rot v. + -ing1.]
1. The process of decaying, decomposing, or putrefying; † also, decomposed or putrid matter. Also rotting-down (in quot. fig.).
| c 1000 Ags. Ps. (Thorpe) xxix. 8 Hu nyt is þe..min cwalu, oððe min rotung on byrᵹenue? c 1230 Hali Meid. (Bodl.) 16 As þet swote smirles..wit þet deade licome þet is þer-wið ismiret, from rotunge. a 1300 Cursor M. 11505 For roting es na better rede. Ibid. 11859 Þe roting þat him rennes vte,..Ne mai na liueand man it thole. 1398 Trevisa Barth. De P.R. v. xxxviii. (Bodl. MS.), Yuel humours schuld esilich þerein be gadered to corrupcion and rooting. c 1420 Liber Cocorum (1862) 33 Presse out þo blode for anythyng, Þat is cause for grete rotyng. c 1480 Henryson Test. Cres. 464 Ȝour roising reid to rotting sall retour. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 240 b, That vile and stynkyng caryon..lyeth in putrefaction or rottyng. 1597 A. M. tr. Guillemeau's Fr. Chirurg. 10 b/2 Least the ayre cause therine some corruptione and rottinge. 1611 Cotgr., Pourris, a suppuration, a rotting. 1726 Leoni Alberti's Archit. I. 75/2 The rotting of the weeds raises unwholesome vapours. 1837 W. B. Adams Carriages 306 The ordinary process of decomposition in wood by what is technically termed ‘rotting’. 1892 W. Pike Barren Ground N. Canada 174 The ice now began to show signs of rotting. 1916 Galsworthy Sheaf 269 Economically..such rotting-down of the boys is grievously short-sighted. |
2. The process of retting (flax).
| 1862 Chambers's Encycl. IV. 367/1 The operation is called rotting or retting, and requires to be managed with great care. 1875 Knight Dict. Mech. 1993/2 Rotting, the steeping of flax-stalks to soften the gum and loosen the fiber from the woody portions. |
▪ II. ˈrotting, ppl. a.
Also 4 rotand, 5 roting, 6 roating.
[f. rot v. + -ing2.]
1. Undergoing decomposition or decay; suffering from rot.
| a 1300 Cursor M. 28823 Be þis lede þou ta bisning þis heui rotand werlds thing. 1435 Misyn Fire of Love 98 Þe rotyng flesch suffyrs not owr mynde in god bisily to be borne. 1638 Cowley Love's Riddle 111, Goe, get you gone, looke to your rotting cattell. 1746 Francis tr. Hor., Sat. ii. iii. 164 Of straw he made his bed, While moths upon his rotting carpet fed. 1798 Coleridge Anc. Mar. iv. v, I looked upon the rotting sea,..I looked upon the rotting deck. 1817 Shelley Rev. Islam x. xxi, Each well Was choked with rotting corpses. 1859 Kingsley Misc. II. 40 He sketches for us the rotting and dying Church. 1883 R. W. Dixon Mano i. viii. 21 Life's rotting root in sadness lingers late. |
2. Productive of rot or decay; causing rottenness.
| 1563 Pilkington Burning S. Paul's B ij, The good shepeherde will not lette hys shepe feede in hurtful and roating pastures. 1715 Leoni Palladio's Archit. (1742) I. 2 The rotting moisture we have spoken of. 1818 Shelley Rosal. & Helen 928 The prisoners..in their rotting dungeons lay. 1846 J. Baxter Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4) II. 275 An ‘excess of fluid’, which, in what are called ‘rotting meadows’, the sheep is obliged to take in with its necessary food. 1897 M. Kingsley W. Africa 547 In a rotting climate like West Africa. |
Hence ˈrottingness, rottenness. rare—1.
| 1495 Trevisa's Barth. De P.R. xix. lxxviii. 908 Rotyngnesse is corrupcion of substauncyall moysture. |