dry rot
noun
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dry rot
1 Americannoun
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Plant Pathology.
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a decay of seasoned timber, resulting in its becoming brittle and crumbling to a dry powder, caused by various fungi.
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any of various diseases of plants in which the rotted tissues are dry.
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any concealed or unsuspected inner decay.
dry-rot
2
American
[drahy-rot]
/ ˈdraɪˌrɒt /
verb (used with or without object)
dry-rotted,
dry-rotting
dry rot
British
noun
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crumbling and drying of timber, bulbs, potatoes, or fruit, caused by saprotrophic basidiomycetous fungi
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any fungus causing this decay, esp of the genus Merulius
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moral degeneration or corrupt practices, esp when previously unsuspected
Etymology
Origin of dry rot1
First recorded in 1785–95
Origin of dry-rot2
First recorded in 1865–70
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The wood had badly deteriorated: There was dry rot, termites and water damage.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 1, 2024
Periodically, it has called out for reroofing, repair of dry rot, replacement of aging siding and a new coat of paint.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 8, 2023
Building inspectors later found that the wooden supports holding up the balcony had been eaten away by dry rot, even though the structure was less than 10 years old.
From New York Times ● Jan. 3, 2022
A later investigation found that joists supporting the deck were suffering from dry rot and had been constructed by a company with a history of complaints.
From BBC ● Jan. 2, 2022
They were Muggles who hated and despised magic in any form, which meant that Harry was about as welcome in their house as dry rot.
From "Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire" by J. K. Rowling
He responds, animatedly for once, to the suggestion that Graham Greene, quizzed about his plots, would reply in the style of a solicitor or dry-rot inspector talking about a house.
From The Guardian ● Aug. 14, 2010
In the U.S. the work of termites was long mistaken for that of fungi and dry-rot which usually follow their riddlings.
From Time Magazine Archive
More than all other factors this moral blight and spiritual dry-rot is what is the matter with Panama.
From Prowling about Panama by Miller, George A.
Avoid priggishness, which is detestable mental dry-rot; and flee from cant, the convenient domino of hypocrisy.
From A Speckled Bird by Wilson, Augusta J. Evans
Seasoning timber to prevent the dry-rot in ships, churches, and other buildings.
From Memorials of the Sea My Father: Being Records of the Adventurous Life of the Late William Scoresby, Esq. of Whitby by Scoresby, William
“She just kept it until it dry-rotted because that was all she really had to remember his dream — his vision,” Green-McCray said of her mother.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 12, 2021
Their tasks have included repairing some of the N95 masks that had been stored at Mary Washington Hospital and had dry-rotted elastic bands, Conner said.
From Washington Times ● Apr. 18, 2020
One hospital official reported getting children’s masks instead of adult sizes, and another described a batch where many were useless because the elastic bands had dry-rotted.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 6, 2020
The folks directly next door are the nicest people, but their house is in terrible condition: peeling paint, dry-rotted windows, and a roof that needs redoing.
From Slate ● Jan. 3, 2019
At the opposite shore, we sat on the edge of a dry-rotted wooden boat dock and dangled our feet over the Mars surface of the dead lake, which was nine feet below us.
From "100 Sideways Miles" by Andrew Smith
It is still languishing three-quarters of the way done in my garage, dry-rotting in place.
From Slate ● Sep. 29, 2020
There was nothing but burrs and nettles inside those walls, and an old wooden bullock plough and a couple of yokes were dry-rotting across the back doorway.
From On the Track by Lawson, Henry
The banks of the creek were like ashes, the thin, gnarled gum-bush seemed dry-rotting fast, and in many places the surface of the ground was cracked in squares where it had shrunk in the drought.
From Children of the Bush by Lawson, Henry
Men there were in plenty, dry-rotting at the post for lack of something to limber their joints; but officers to lead?
From An Apache Princess A Tale of the Indian Frontier by Remington, Frederic
Now the warehouse stood dry-rotting and unkempt, its spaces regularly tenanted only by the owl and bat.
From The Tempering by Buck, Charles Neville
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
