rotten (English) - Vocabulary & GRE App

Direct Cross-Language Association: “rotten” in German

This word also exists in German! Meaning: “To rot, to decay.”

rotten

EN • English

//ˈɹɒtn̩//(Received Pronunciation)

Direct German Translations & Equivalents:

Click any term below to jump straight to its full vocabulary entry in German:

[DE]scheußlich [DE]scheusslich [DE]gemein [DE]mies [DE]niederträchtig [DE]hundsgemein [DE]saumäßig [DE]saumässig [DE]schlecht [DE]schlimm

Definitions & Usage

adjective

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

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

Synonyms:

gone bad maggoted spoiled bad gone off

adjective

In a state of decay.

Example: “The floors were damaged and the walls were rotten.”

Example: “His mouth stank and his teeth were rotten.”

Synonyms:

blighted forworn putrid cankered decayed dotterel moldering putrefacient

adjective

Cruel, mean or immoral.

Example: “That man is a rotten father.”

Example: “This rotten policy will create more injustice in this country.”

Synonyms:

fell malicious ruthless barbarous bowelless brutal compassionless cruel

Translations:[DE]scheußlich [DE]scheusslich [DE]gemein [DE]mies [DE]niederträchtig [DE]hundsgemein

adjective

Bad or terrible.

Example: “Why is the weather always rotten in this city?”

Example: “It was a rotten idea to take the boat out today.”

Synonyms:

awful foul horrible abysmal atrocious bad chronic coarse

Translations:[DE]saumäßig [DE]saumässig [DE]schlecht [DE]schlimm

adjective

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

Synonyms:

crumbly crumblesome frickle bad gone bad gone off maggoted spoiled

adjective

(UK, Ireland, Australia, slang) Very drunk, intoxicated.

Synonyms:

munted para peloothered Adrian Quist adrip aled up all mops and brooms arseholed

adverb

To an extreme degree.

Example: “That kid is spoilt rotten.”

Example: “The girls fancy him something rotten.”

Notable Literary & Historical Quotes

“Antonio: Mark you this, Bassanio, / The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose. / An evil soul producing holy witness / Is like a villain with a smiling cheek, / A goodly apple rotten at the heart. / O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!”

— c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]:

“But poore old man, thou prun'ſt a rotten tree, / That cannot ſo much as a bloſſome yeelde”

— c. 1598–1600 (date written), William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii], page 191:

“Something is rotten in the State of Denmarke.”

— c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iv], page 257, column 2: