Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Rot

Rot , intransitive verb

[Old English rotien, Anglo-Saxon rotian; akin to Dutch rotten, Prov. German rotten, Old High German rozz{not transcribed}n, German rosten to steep flax, Icelandic rotna to rot, Swedish ruttna, Danish raadne, Icelandic rottin rotten. r117. Compare Ret, Rotten.]

1.
To undergo a process common to organic substances by which they lose the cohesion of their parts and pass through certain chemical changes, giving off usually in some stages of the process more or less offensive odors; to become decomposed by a natural process; to putrefy; to decay.
Fixed like a plant on his peculiar spot, To draw nutrition, propagate, and rot. — Pope
2.
Figuratively: To perish slowly; to decay; to die; to become corrupt.
Four of the sufferers were left to rot in irons. — Macaulay
Rot, poor bachelor, in your club. — Thackeray

Rot , transitive verb

1.
To make putrid; to cause to be wholly or partially decomposed by natural processes; as, to rot vegetable fiber.
2.
To expose, as flax, to a process of maceration, etc., for the purpose of separating the fiber; to ret.

Rot , noun

1.
Process of rotting; decay; putrefaction.
2.
(Botany) A disease or decay in fruits, leaves, or wood, supposed to be caused by minute fungi. See Bitter rot, Black rot, etc., below.
3.
A fatal distemper which attacks sheep and sometimes other animals. It is due to the presence of a parasitic worm in the liver or gall bladder. See 1st Fluke, 2.
His cattle must of rot and murrain die. — Milton
Collocations (6)
Bitter rot (Botany) , a disease of apples, caused by the fungus Glaeosporium fructigenum. — F. L. Scribner
Black rot (Botany) , a disease of grapevines, attacking the leaves and fruit, caused by the fungus Laestadia Bidwellii. — F. L. Scribner
Dry rot (Botany) , See under Dry.
Grinder's rot (Medicine) , See under Grinder.
Potato rot (Botany) , See under Potato.
White rot (Botany) , a disease of grapes, first appearing in whitish pustules on the fruit, caused by the fungus Coniothyrium diplodiella. — F. L. Scribner