rotting

rotting is the present participle and gerund of rot.

Noun

rotting (plural rottings)

The process by which something rots.
- […] the mould on the boles of the other [trees], that lyes commonly there, and is made of the annual rottings of their own leaves.1686, Robert Plot, The Natural History of Staffordshire, page 214
Material that has rotted.
- From the compost rinds and rottings, from the garbage peels, from the shadows' darkness, darkness, this guttered meal and all its redolence.c. 2009, Janice N. Harrington, Possum

Meaning of rot

Verb

rot (third-person singular simple present rots, present participle rotting, simple past and past participle rotted)

(intransitive) To suffer decomposition due to biological action, especially by fungi or bacteria.
- The apple left in the cupboard all that time had started to rot.
(intransitive) To decline in function or utility.
- Your brain will rot if you spend so much time on the computer, Tony!
(ambitransitive) To (cause to) deteriorate in any way, as in morals; to corrupt.
(transitive) To make putrid; to cause to be wholly or partially decomposed by natural processes.
- to rot vegetable fiber
(figuratively, intransitive) To spend a long period of time (in an unpleasant place or state).
- to rot in prison
(transitive) To expose, as flax, to a process of maceration, etc., for the purpose of separating the fiber; to ret.

See all 12 meanings of rot

Forms of rotting

plural	rottings

Origin of rotting

From Middle English rotynge (“rotting”), from Old English rotung; equivalent to rot + -ing. Conflated with Middle English rotende, present participle of roten (“to rot”), from Old English rotiende, present participle of rotian (“to rot”).

Words formed from rotting

bed rotting

Phrases with rotting

Questions about rotting

What does rotting mean?: Rotting means the process by which something rots.
What is rotting the present participle and gerund of?: Rotting is the present participle and gerund of rot.
What part of speech is rotting?: Rotting is a noun.
What is the plural of rotting?: The plural of rotting is rottings.

Words near rotting in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: rotting (page history and authors); rot (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

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