rotten

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Of perishable items, overridden with bacteria and other infectious agents.

   If you leave a bin unattended for a few weeks, the rubbish inside will turn rotten.

2. 2
   adj

   In a state of decay.

   The floors were damaged and the walls were rotten.

3. 3
   adj

   Cruel, mean or immoral.

   That man is a rotten father.

4. 4
   adj

   Bad or terrible.

   Why is the weather always rotten in this city?

5. 5
   adj

   Of stone or rock, crumbling or friable; in a loose or disintegrated state.

   The quartz specimens were sometimes blue, hard-looking stone, or rotten quartz largely impregnated with iron, in both cases carrying bright glittering nodules of gold.

6. 6
   adv

   To an extreme degree.

   That kid is spoilt rotten.

7. 7
   adj

   having decayed or disintegrated

8. 8
   adj

   very bad

Etymology

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).