rotten

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Decayed and no longer fit to eat or use, especially of food.

   The apples at the bottom of the basket had gone rotten.

2. 2
   adj

   In a state of decay; soft and falling apart.

   The old wooden floorboards were rotten and unsafe.

3. 3
   adj

   Very bad or unpleasant.

   We had rotten weather for the whole holiday.

4. 4
   adj

   Cruel, mean, or unkind.

   It was a rotten thing to say to your sister.

5. 5
   adv

   To an extreme degree; thoroughly.

   Their grandparents spoil the kids rotten.

From Middle English roten, from Old Norse rotinn (“decayed, rotten”), past participle of an unrecorded verb related to Old Norse rotna (“to rot”) and Old English rotian (“to rot”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *rutāną (“to rot”). See rot. By surface analysis, rot + -en (past participle).

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