rotten
adj.adj. decayed or broken down, like old food that smells bad. You can also use it to describe something very low in quality or a person who is mean.
adj. suffering from decay or decomposition; putrid. In a figurative sense, it describes something of poor quality or a person lacking moral character.
The kitchen smells because of those rotten apples.
The wooden fence collapsed because the posts were rotten from years of heavy rain.
The investigation revealed a rotten core within the local government, where systemic bribery had been ignored for decades by those in power.
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).
Typically used to describe organic matter, but frequently applied metaphorically to systems, weather, or moods.
- 01
rotten apple
A bad person, especially one who has a corrupting influence on others.
- 02
rotten egg
A person who is the latest, the last, or the slowest in a group to arrive somewhere or to perform a certain task.
- 03
something is rotten in the state of Denmark
Something is not right, seriously amiss, especially when leading to suspicion of motive.