rotting
nounEtymology 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”).
1
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:
2
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:
- Derived terms
- bed rotting
- Related terms
- nonrotting, rottingly, rottingness, unrotting