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Something is rotten in the state of Denmark

Cultural  

  1. A line from the play Hamlet, by William Shakespeare. An officer of the palace guard says this after the ghost of the dead king appears, walking over the palace walls.

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“Something is rotten in the state of Denmark” is used to describe corruption or a situation in which something is wrong.

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.

"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark," Mr Emanuel tweeted on Friday.

From BBC • Sep. 15, 2023

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark, and Persia is no better off in Waterwell’s version of this Shakespeare tragedy, performed in English and Persian.

From New York Times • May 18, 2017

Something is rotten in the state of Denmark, and Persia is no better off in Waterwell’s version of this Shakespeare tragedy, performed in English and Farsi.

From New York Times • May 4, 2017

"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark" when one-tenth of the human family, booted and spurred, ride the masses to destruction.

From Eighty Years and More; Reminiscences 1815-1897 by Stanton, Elizabeth Cady

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.