Rotten

Definition: Rotten

Rotten

Adjective

1. (informal) very bad; "a lousy play"; "it's a stinking world".

2. Having rotted or disintegrated; usually implies foulness; "dead and rotten in his grave".

3. Damaged by decay; hence unsound and useless; "rotten floor boards"; "rotted beams"; "a decayed foundation".

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "rotten" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1010. (references)

Etymology: Rotten \Rot"ten\, adjective. [Icel. rotinn; akin to Swedish rutten, Danish radden. See Rot.]. (references)

Multilingual Slang

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Synonyms: Rotten

Cunning

Phrase: diamond cut diamond; a' bis ou a blanc; fin contre fin; "something is rotten in the state of Denmark".

Deception

Untrue; mock, sham, make-believe, counterfeit, snide, pseudo, spurious, so-called, pretended, feigned, trumped up, bogus, scamped, fraudulent, tricky, factitious;bastard; surreptitious, illegitimate, contraband, adulterated, sophisticated; unsound, rotten at the core; colorable; disguised; meretricious, tinsel, pinchbeck, plated; catchpenny; Brummagem.

Deterioration

Decayed; Verb: moth-eaten, worm-eaten; mildewed, rusty, moldy, spotted, seedy, time-worn, moss-grown; discolored; effete, wasted, crumbling, moldering, rotten, cankered, blighted, tainted; depraved; (vicious); decrepid, decrepit; broke, busted, broken, out of commission, hors de combat, out of action, broken down; done, done for, done up; worn out, used up, finished; beyond saving, fit for the dust hole, fit for the wastepaper basket, past work; (useless).

Disease

Morbid, tainted, vitiated, peccant, contaminated, poisoned, tabid, mangy, leprous, cankered; rotten, rotten to the core, rotten at the core; withered, palsied, paralytic;dyspeptic; luetic, pneumonic, pulmonic, phthisic, rachitic; syntectic, syntectical; tabetic, varicose.

Inexpedience

Bad, ill, arrant, as bad as bad can be, dreadful; horrid, horrible; dire; rank, peccant, foul, fulsome; rotten, rotten at the core.

Latency Implication

Allusion, insinuation; innuendo; adumbration; "something rotten in the state of Denmark".

Seclusion Exclusion

Depopulation, desertion, desolation; wilderness; (unproductive); howling wilderness; rotten borough, Old Sarum.

Uncleanness

Decayed, moldy, musty, mildewed, rusty, moth-eaten, mucid, rancid, weak, bad, gone bad, etercoral, lentiginous, touched, fusty, effete, reasty, rotten, corrupt, tainted, high, flyblown, maggoty; putrid, putrefactive, putrescent, putrefied; saprogenic, saprogenous; purulent, carious, peccant; fecal, feculent; stercoraceous, scurfy, scurvy, impetiginous; gory, bloody; rotting; Verb: rotten as a pear, rotten as cheese.

Weakness

Languid, poor, infirm; faint, faintish; sickly; (disease); dull, slack, evanid, spent, short-winded, effete; weather-beaten; decayed, rotten, worn, seedy, languishing, wasted, washy, laid low, pulled down, the worse for wear.

Crosswords: Rotten

Dutch (putrefy, rot), German (routs).

All dead and all rotten, elves and men and orcses (The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers; writing credit: Frances Walsh)

It's a rotten combination (The Odd Couple; writing credit: Neil Simon)

Their flesh is too much like the flesh of men, and their perfume has the rotten sweetness of corruption (The Big Sleep; writing credit: William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett, and Jules Furthman. Based on the novel by Raymond Chandler.)

Maybe I am just rotten to the core (Caroline in the City; writing credit: Angela Carneiro)

A dirty, rotten liar (The Simpsons; writing credit: Artur Brauner; Paul Hengge)

They all say I'm rotten and rich (Hey Ma; performing artist: Cam'ron)

Acting rotten, I got no time for games (Left & Right Featuring Method Man And Redman; performing artist: D'Angelo)

The Rotten Rainmaker (1967)

Rotten to the Core (1965)

The Price of a Rotten Time (1918)

Dirty Rotten Cheater (2003)

Rotten TV (2000)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Books

• Getting What You Want (and Deserve) From Rotten Bosses, Demanding Spouses, Phony Friends, Prying Parents, Annoying Neighbors, And Other Irritating People (reference)

• Banvard's Folly: Tales of Renowned Obscurity, Famous Anonymity, and Rotten Luck (reference)

• The Best of the World's Worst: World Class Blunders, Screw-Ups, Oddballs, Misfits and Rotten Ideas (reference)

• Dice: Deception, Fate, and Rotten Luck (reference)

• Rotten: No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs: The Authorized Autobiography Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols (reference)

  (more book examples)

Theater & Movies

• Something Smells Really Rotten (reference)

• When Things Were Rotten (reference)

  (more DVD examples; more video examples)

Music

• Dirty Rotten Lp on CD (reference)

  (more classical music examples; more popular music examples)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

B-17 used for aerial photography following WWII This was the last operational B-17- dubbed "Old Rotten Wings" by aircraft crew Flown by Coast Guard crew with C&GS navigator and cameraman. Credit: Coast & Geodetic Survey Historical Image Collection.

Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

The void which the demolished house left upon the street is half filled by a palisade fence of rotten boards, supported by five stone posts

So now prosperity begins to mellow And drop into the rotten mouth of death

Oh, he got worms out of rotten logs since the ground froze, and so he caught them

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Expressions using "rotten": be rotten ♦ become rotten ♦ feel rotten ♦ going rotten ♦ rotten as a pear ♦ rotten as cheese ♦ rotten at the core ♦ rotten borough ♦ rotten luck ♦ rotten right through ♦ rotten rock ♦ rotten stone ♦ rotten to the core ♦ rotten trick ♦ spoil smb. rotten ♦ what rotten luck!. Additional references.

Beginning with "rotten": rotten-apple, rotten-egg, rotten-looking, rotten-stone.

Ending with "rotten": half-rotten, over-rotten, spoilt-rotten, wet-rotten.

Afrikaans

bedorwe (addled, bad, spoiled). (various references)

Albanian

jo i fortë (unstable), i prishur (addle, addled, annulled, broken, corrupt, decayed, depraved, disconcerted, flyblown, godforsaken, haywire, high, perverted, putrid, rancid, rot, sour, spoilt, tainted, turned, unsound), i neveritshëm (abhorrent, abominable, accursed, accurst, beastly, contemptible, damnable, damned, despicable, detestable, disgustful, disgusting, execrable, fulsome, ghoulish, heinous, hideous, loathful, loathsome, nauseating, noisome, obnoxious, odious, putrid, rank, repellent, repugnant, repulsive, revolting, sickening, sickly, slimy, sordid, squalid, unclean, unsavory, unsavoury), i krimbur (grubby, lousy, maggoty, turned, wormy), i kalbur (carious, carrion, corrupt, decayed, putrid, rotting, saprogenic, saprogenous, tainted, unsound), i dobët (anaemic, anemic, bad, cachectic, characterless, cheesy, delicate, Dickey, dicky, dim, Dotty, enervate, faint, fainting, feeble, flabby, flaccid, gone, ill-conditioned, impaired, indolent, inferior, infirm, insubstantial, knock kneed, lame, lamentable, languid, languorous, lax, lean, low, meager, meagre, mean, measly, milk and water, nerveless, pale, pimping, pithless, poky, poor, puny, queasy, reckling, remiss, remote, rundown, scraggy, scrannel, scrawny, scrofulous, seared, shoddy, skinny, slack, sleazy, slender, slight, slim, soft, spare, squeamish, tender, thin, third rate, Twiggy, weak, weakly, woozy). (various references)

Arabic 

‏فاسد (abusive, bad, corrupt, decadent, decayed, decomposed, degenerated, depraved, disintegrated, evil, false, foul, immoral, incorrect, infected, invalid, null, perverse, pervertible, putrid, rogue, spoiled, unsound, vain, vicious, void, wicked, wrong), ‏نتن (fetid, fetor, foetid, malodorous, mephitis, rancid, stagnant, stank, stink, stinky), ‏حقير (abject, base, beggarly, blackguardly, cheap, despicable, dingy, dirty, frowzy, grubby, ignoble, inferior, insignificant, lousy, low, low down, lowly, mean, menial, niggling, paltry, pettifogger, petty, pip squeak, pitiable, pitiful, poor, popinjay, scabby, scaly, scoundrelly, scruffy, scummy, scurvy, servile, shabby, shoddy, slavish, slim, slushy, small minded, snide, sod, squalid, swine, tacky, trifling, ungracious, unworthy, varmint, vile, villainous, worthless, wretched), ‏عفن (corrupt, decay, decompose, frowsty, fusty, mildew, mold, mould, musty, obnoxious, putrefaction, putrefy, putrid, rank, reek, septic, spoilt, stale, taint), ‏خام (bad-smelling, fusty, spoiled, stinking), ‏بغيض جدا (fierce), ‏بايخ (banal, tired, trite, vapid), ‏بال (decomposed, decrepit, fossil, mangy, musty, old fashioned, outmoded, outworn, shabby, stale, threadbare, tired, trite, well worn, worn, worn out). (various references)

Bulgarian 

разяден (cankered, perished), калпав (bad, dud, jitney, shoddy), гнил (bad, decayed, putrid, tindery), отвратителен (abhorrent, abominable, accursed, accurst, atrocious, awful, beastly, bestial, carrion, creepy, cursed, damnable, detestable, disgustful, disgusting, distasteful, execrable, foul, fulsome, gruesome, hateful, heinous, hideous, horrible, ill-favored, ill-favoured, infamous, loathsome, lousy, miserable, morbid, nasty, nauseous, noisome, odious, offensive, punk, putrid, rank, repellent, revolting, septic, shocking, sickening, ugly, unholy, unsavory, unsavoury, unspeakable, villainous, wicked), морално пропаднал, метиляв, долен (abject, base, bottom, contemptible, currish, ignoble, ignominious, infamous, inferior, iniquitous, low, lower, low-grade, mangy, mean, mean-spirited, rascal, ratty, reptile, scaly, scurvy, shady, under, unworthy, vile, villainous). (various references)

Chinese 

腐烂 (Putrescent, rot), 腐朽 (decadent, decayed, degenerate), 腐 (decay), 爛 (overcooked, soft), 朽 (draw, pull, send funeral ode), 槁 (dry). (various references)

Czech

ztrouchnivìlý, zkažený (bad, corrupt, debauched, decayed, high, perverted, putrid, ruined, spoilt, stale, wicked), zetlelý, shnilý (carious, putrid), mizerný (abysmal, bad, bleeding, bum, cheap, crappy, crummy, dismal, foul, lousy, miserable, painful, paltry, stingy, tinpot, vile, wretched). (various references)

Danish

raadden. (various references)

Dutch

rot (addled, bad, gang, rat, squad, ugly), verrot (addled, bad), bedorven (addled, bad, spoiled). (various references)

Esperanto

putra (bad). (various references)

Farsi 

فاسد (Corrupt, Dissolute, Gamy, Immoral, Perverse, Putrid, Rake, Rancid, Reechy, Reprobate, Sedition, Sinister, Untoward, Vicious, Vile, Villainous), پوسیده (Frowzy, Musty, Ruttish), زنگ زده (Rusty), خراب (Ill, Ruinous), روبفساد. (various references)

Finnish

pilaantunut (damaged, tainted decayed), mätä (decay, decayed, lousy, pus, rot), mädäntynyt, laho (decay, decayed), huono (bad, poor, ugly, wicked, wretched). (various references)

French

pourri (rots). (various references)

Frisian

ferrotte (addled, bad). (various references)

German

faul (addled, bad, decayed, dubious, dud, feeble, fishy, flimsy, foul, idle, idly, indolent, laggard, lame, lazily, lazy, off, phoney, phony, putrid, rottenly, slothful, sluggard, sluggardly, sluggish, sluggishly, sorry, suspicious, uneasy), verfault (bad, decayed, decomposed, degenerate, festers, putrid, putridly, rots), faulig (addled, bad, foul, going bad, going off, going rotten, putrefactive, putrid, stagnating, stale). (various references)

Greek 

σαπισμένος (putrid). (various references)

Hebrew 

ממוקמק (decayed), מושחת (corrupt, corruptible, debauchee, naughty, perverse, punk, sordid, vicious), מורקב (putrescent, putrid), מעופש (fusty, mouldy, muggy, musty), מעובש (mouldy), מנוול (contemptible, corrupt, despicable, ugly), קלוקל (corrupt, defective, inferior, poor, spoilt), רקוב (decayed, putrid, rancid, septic), רקב (decay, gangrene, putrefaction, putridity, rot), נאלח (contaminated, dirty, infected, polluted, stained), נרקב (moldy, mouldy, putrid). (various references)

Hungarian

rothadt (putrid, septic, to putrefy), rohadt (blankety-blank, bleeding, damn, effing, freaking, stinky), erkölcstelen (bawdy, corrupt, dirty, dissipated, filth, filthy, immoral, lewd, loose, meretricious, profligate, unmoral, unprincipled, vicious). (various references)

Indonesian

keropos (hollow, porous, rarefied, spongy), busuk (bad, low, putrescent, putrid, spoiled), bobrok (dilapidated, ramshackle, tumbledown), bangsai (fragile). (various references)

Italian

putrido (putrid), marcio (bad, festering, rottened, rottens). (various references)

Japanese Kanji 

芯が腐っている (to be rotten to the core), 腐臭 (rotten smell, smell of something rotten), 傷んだトマト (rotten tomatoes). (various references)

Japanese Katakana 

しんがくさっている (to be rotten to the core), ふしゅう (rotten smell, smell of something rotten), いたんだトマト (rotten tomatoes). (various references)

Korean 

썩은. (various references)

Malay

buruk (addled, bad, nasty, ugly). (various references)

Manx

molkit (decomposed, mortified, putrified, rotted), loau (bad, bad as meat, carious, corrupt, decayed, foul, gangrenous, putrefactive, putrescent, putrid, rotted, stagnate, stale), lheahree, kercheenagh (abject, cringing, cullionly, dependent, down-and-out, impoverished, impoverishing, miserable, servile, shabby, slavish, truckle, vile, vile morally), guirragh (broody, clucky, hatching, nesting, sitting, sitting of fowl), graney (bad-looking, dirty, dirty as trick, execrable, gruesome, hideous, ill-favoured, lousy, nasty, objectionable, obnoxious, revolting, ugly, uncomely), breinn (blue, blue as film, foetid, foul, loathsome, malodorus, nasty, offensive, pestilential, putrid, rancid, smelly). (various references)

Pig Latin

ottenray.(various references)

Portuguese

podre (addle, addled, bad, foul, punk, putrid, stinking, tainted, unsound). (various references)

Romanian

stricat (addle, bad, broken, broken down, carrion, close, corrupt, corrupted, dead, decayed, defaced, depraved, deteriorated, dilapidated, disabled, diseased, dissolute, foul, fusty, graceless, immoral, injured, loose, meretricious, niffy, out of order, perverse, polluted, rakehelly, spoilt, stuffy, tainted, vicious, vitiated), putrezit (putrid), putred (carrion, putrid), nenorocit (abject, baleful, disastrous, forlorn, grievous, grub, hapless, lame duck, mean, measly, miser, miserable, pilgarlic, rascal, sad, scullion, unfortunate, unhappy, wretch, wretched), necinstit (crooked, dirty, dishonest, dishonestly, disingenuous, faithless, foul, fraudulent, knavish, knavishly, low down, meretricious, perfidious, raw, unfair, unfaithful, unlawful), lamentabil (godforsaken, lamentable, lamentably, lamenting, woeful, wretched), infect (foul, stinking, vile, wretched), de calitate proastã (bum), corupt (corrupt, depraved, lax, prostitute, scrofulous, venal), clocit, cariat (carious). (various references)

Russian 

гнилой (carious, putrid). (various references)

Scottish

grod (putrid), blanndaidh. (various references)

Serbo-Croatian

rđav (bad, ill, miserable, naught, naughty, punk, unimprovable, wicked), truo (bad, doty, putrid), pokvaren (addle, bad, become foul, corrupt, tainted). (various references)

Spanish

podrido (addle, addled, bad, putrid, rotting, tacky). (various references)

Swahili

-bovu (addled, bad), bovu (bad). (various references)

Swedish

rutten (addled, bad, foul, putrid, rotting), skämd (addled, bad, corrupt, high, tained, tainted). (various references)

Thai

เน่าเปื่อย (foul, putrefy). (various references)

Turkish

rezalet (disgrace, ignominy, indignity, infamousness, obloquy, opprobrium, outrage, outrageousness, ridiculous, scandal, scene, shambles, villainy), kokuşmuş (bad, fetid, foul, fusty, hard set, putrid, rancid, rank), kokmuş (addle, bad, fetid, flyblown, niffy, putrefacient, putrefactive, putrid, rancid, rank, smelly, stinky, tainted), cılk (addle, addled), bozuk (addle, bad, broken, broken down, bum, damaged, dead, deranged, dirty, disappointed, dished, disordered, distorted, doric, embroiled, faulty, flyblown, foul, gone, hard set, haywire, heavy, hipshot, imperfect, in bad order, irregular, kaput, knackered, off, on the fritz, out of action, out of commission, out of gear, out of order, perverse, putrefacient, putrefactive, putrid, rancid, stale, touched, unsound, upset, vicious, wrong), berbat (abominable, abysmal, accursed, accurst, appalling, atrocious, awful, bad, badly, beastly, bum, chronic, crappy, dashed, destroyed, deuced, devilish, disgusting, dread, dreadfull, egregious, execrable, fierce, flagitious, frightful, ghastly, grotty, hell, hell of, helluva, horrible, horrid, indifferent, infamous, infernal, ropy, screwed, shocking, sickening, spoilt, sticky, stinking, terrible, ungodly, unsavory, unsavoury, vicious, vile, villainous, violent, wretched), çok kötü (arrant, atrocious, awful, chronic, terrible, thumbs down, violent), çürümüş (black and blue, blue, carious, decayed, decomposed, putrefacient, putrefactive, went bad), çürük (bad, bruise, carious, cavity, contusion, decay, decayed, dicky, draft-exempt, dry rot, feeble, flimsy, putrefacient, putrefactive, putrid, rickety, rocky, sleazy, tooth decay, unsound, wonky). (various references)

Turkmen 

yslanan, palak, зьяrьk (putrid). (various references)

Ukrainian

гнилий (bad, carious, carrion, putrescent), неміцний (insubstantial, shaky, sketchy, sleazy, slight, ticklish, unsubstantial, unwholesome, weak), морально розбещений (obliquitous). (various references)

Vietnamese 

vô giá trị (bum, gewgaw, nude, nugatory, scrubby, stramineous, straw, trashy, two-bit, waste), thối rữa đồi bại, tồi (deplorable, doggerel, foul, illy, poor, poorly, punk, third-rate, threepenny, trashy, wretched), sa đoạ xấu, mục nát; thối, mục, làm bực mình (displeasing), đáng ghét mắc bệnh sán gan. (various references)

Welsh

pydredig (putrid), pwdr (corrupt, putrid), braen (corrupt). (various references)

cariosus, marcidus, puter, putrida, putridum, putridus. (various references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Derivations

Words beginning with "rotten": rottener, rottenest, rottenly, rottenness, rottennesses, rottenstone, rottenstones. (additional references)

Misspellings

"Rotten" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Druten, Grotten, Hotten, jotten, otten, Ratjen, ratteen, Rechten, riten, Ritzen, Robton, Rodden, Roddon, rooteth, rortyan, rotea, rotean, roteb, rotef, roteg, roteh, rotei, rotek, rotel, Rotem, roten, rotend, roteo, rotep, rotet, roteu, rotev, rotew, rotex, rotey, rothern, rotin, roton, rottens, Rotto, rotton, Rottser, routen, Rowten, Roxton, Roxtown, rrotten, rusten, ruten, ruttan, torten, totten. (additional references)

Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

Direct Anagrams: torten.

-1 letter: noter, otter, rotte, tenor, toner, torte, toter, trone.

-2 letters: nett, note, rent, rote, tent, tern, tone, tore, torn, tort, tote, tret, trot.

-3 letters: eon, ern, net, nor, not, one, ore, ort, ret, roe, rot, ten, tet, toe, ton, tor, tot.

-4 letters: en, er, et, ne, no, oe, on, or, re, to.

+1 letter: knotter, portent, stentor, torment, torrent, tritone.

+2 letters: attorned, attorney, betatron, buttoner, contrite, entrepot, frontlet, intorted, knotters, knottier, patentor, portents, rebutton, rottener, rottenly, snottier, stentors, tenorist, tenorite, tetragon, tolerant, torments, torrents, trecento, tritones, trotline.

+3 letters: anorthite, attorneys, betatrons, buttoners, carnotite, contester, contorted, cornetist, cowritten, detonator, detrition, entoproct, entrecote, entrepots, extorting, extortion, forgotten, fortunate, frontlets, intermont, introject, introvert, iteration, lorgnette, natrolite, nontarget, northeast, northwest, notoriety, orientate, outlearnt, patentors, pothunter, pottering, prepotent, protonate, rattooned, rebuttons, recontact, repotting, retention, retorting, rottenest, stationer, sternmost, sternpost, stonewort, strongest, tenorists, tenorites, teratogen, tetragons, thereinto, thereunto, thorniest, tonometer, tonometry, tormented, tormenter, tormentil, tormentor, tottering, trecentos, tretinoin, tricotine, trotlines, turnstone, untutored.