Word.ws English Dictionary

rot gut

rot gut is the alternative spelling of rotgut.

Meaning of rotgut

Noun

rotgut (usually uncountable, plural rotguts)

  1. (slang, usually) Raw or poor-quality alcoholic liquor.
    • Near-synonym: red-eye

Adjective

rot gut (not generally comparable, comparative more rot gut, superlative most rot gut)

  1. (not comparable, usually) Unrefined, low quality.
    • As a result of their laws in some of the states statistics furnish the facts that more “rot gut” whiskey is used than ever before, the milder and more harmless beverages having been in a measure embargoed by the law by reason of the fact that they cannot so easily be smuggled and handled as the...1887, William Hibbard, Rays of Reason: Or Religion Refuted, page 115
    • “This time it ain't gonna be none of that cheap rot gut stuff is it?” Nate posed to Marten.2015, Randall Von Hartman, A Slip of the Cog

Forms of rot gut

comparativemore rot gut
superlativemost rot gut

Questions about rot gut

What does rot gut mean?
Rot gut means unrefined, low quality.
What is rot gut the alternative spelling of?
Rot gut is the alternative spelling of rotgut.
What part of speech is rot gut?
Rot gut is an adjective.

Words near rot gut in the dictionary

  1. rosé wine
  2. rosé wines
  3. rosés
  4. rot
  5. rot away
  6. rot gut
  7. rot in hell
  8. rot me
  9. rot off
  10. rot pocket
  11. rot pockets

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rot gut (page history and authors); rotgut (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “rot gut.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/rot_gut. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.