dry rot
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:
In one case in Luton, the dry rot was so extensive that the house has been gutted and is costing more than £250,000 to fix.
From BBC ● Apr. 22, 2026
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
A clever entrepreneur could establish a weight-loss program entirely on the basis of alerting people to the larvae and dry rot and beetle eggs that adulterate their favorite foods.
From New York Times ● Dec. 27, 2021
The air smelled of age and dry rot and damp, but of nothing worse than that.
From "The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage" by Philip Pullman
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
So every precaution must be taken against dampness and dry-rot.
From Tales of the Malayan Coast From Penang to the Philippines by Rounsevelle Wildman
An economic dry-rot at the heart of a country is more terrible than excoriations on the surface.
From Europe—Whither Bound? Being Letters of Travel from the Capitals of Europe in the Year 1921 by Stephen Graham
The dry-rot had, however, got into the wood, and the whole framework was much decayed.
From The Spanish Cavalier A Story of Seville by A. L. O. E.
“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
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 Frederic Remington
The whole passage required careful walking, to avoid dangerous holes, and thin, dry-rotting boards.
From Chatterbox, 1906 by J. Erskine (John Erskine) Clarke
Now the warehouse stood dry-rotting and unkempt, its spaces regularly tenanted only by the owl and bat.
From The Tempering by Charles Neville Buck
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 Henry Lawson
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.
