rotten.
Of perishable items, overridden with bacteria and other infectious agents.
Meaning & usage
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.
In a state of decay.
The floors were damaged and the walls were rotten.
His mouth stank and his teeth were rotten.
Cruel, mean or immoral.
That man is a rotten father.
This rotten policy will create more injustice in this country.
Bad or terrible.
Why is the weather always rotten in this city?
It was a rotten idea to take the boat out today.
Of stone or rock, crumbling or friable; in a loose or disintegrated state.
Very drunk, intoxicated.
Where this word comes from
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).
To an extreme degree.
That kid is spoilt rotten.
The girls fancy him something rotten.
Where this word comes from
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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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.