How to Use rot in a Sentence
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Do not pile mulch against the tree’s trunk; that can cause the bark to rot.
—Beth Botts, Chicago Tribune, 6 May 2023
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Since this is a desert species, keeping the dirt moist will cause the roots to rot.
—Katarina Avendaño, Good Housekeeping, 28 Mar. 2023
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The first is a man, face down on the roots of a tree, rotting on a pathway.
—Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, 15 Apr. 2023
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May all of their souls rot in hell when their time comes.
—Colleen Slevin and Matthew Brown, The Christian Science Monitor, 23 Dec. 2023
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In the evening, the water may puddle and cause the roots to rot, Stewart added.
—Madeline Holcombe, CNN, 4 Feb. 2024
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Though it’s set 60 years in the past, the horrors and rot at the center of the Catholic Church have since come to light publicly.
—Aramide Tinubu, Variety, 8 Mar. 2024
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The rope is also soft to the touch and won't rot or mold, even in the harshest elements.
—Stefanie Hammond, Chicago Tribune, 20 July 2023
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Where piles of kelp had washed up to rot on the beach last year, swaths of black sand took over this summer.
—Emily Schwing, Anchorage Daily News, 4 Oct. 2022
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Even Barry got a quick death, but Cousineau took all the blame and is rotting in prison.
—Brian Hiatt, Rolling Stone, 29 May 2023
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Most yellow jacket nests are in the ground or hollow trees, and the old nests just rot away.
—Jeanne Huber, Washington Post, 15 Mar. 2024
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The book does point to the fact that, even as the ice rots away, reaching the pole has gotten to be like climbing Denali.
—David James, Anchorage Daily News, 18 June 2023
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Why not use leap day to do a little bed rotting and catch up?
—Heidi Finley, Charlotte Observer, 26 Feb. 2024
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Water when the soil feels dry and let the excess drain away to prevent roots from rotting.
—Lynn Coulter, Better Homes & Gardens, 22 Oct. 2023
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The culprit of blossom end rot in tomatoes is not a bug or a disease.
—Megan Hughes, Better Homes & Gardens, 14 July 2023
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Decades later, those trees have rotted, sinking the earth down a bit.
—Alex Harris, Miami Herald, 29 Mar. 2024
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One side of its trunk is rotting, and the tree has lost several limbs and a major branch.
—Samantha Latson, Washington Post, 7 July 2023
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Old wood in the centers of trees may rot away, erasing years of history.
—Stephanie Pappas, Scientific American, 3 May 2023
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There’s a rotting half-onion in the fridge because Annie cut it and nobody can bear to throw it out.
—Catherine Newman, San Diego Union-Tribune, 9 Mar. 2024
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When the eggs hatch, the larvae — which are grubs — feed on the core of the plant, leaving it vulnerable to rot from the inside out.
—Nan Sterman, San Diego Union-Tribune, 2 Sep. 2023
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My mouth tasted of something sweet and rotting and my face was swollen up like a pool float.
—Annie Lord, Vogue, 9 Dec. 2023
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The tale is set in an haut-bourgeois paradise that seems to be rotting from within.
—Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 6 Oct. 2023
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But piling it up like a volcano around your tree traps moisture against the trunk, which can cause rot.
—Rachael Baihn, Better Homes & Gardens, 21 Oct. 2022
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Left to rot on the beach, sargassum can turn into a problem.
—Suman Naishadham, Fortune, 22 Mar. 2023
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Now, most of those same tiny peaches and blooms are rotting off the branches and falling to the ground, Pearson said.
—Drew Kann The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (tns), al, 4 Apr. 2023
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In some places, the carcasses rot in the open and the pained cries of sick animals are resound in villages.
—Aniruddha Ghosal, BostonGlobe.com, 29 Sep. 2022
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Turn each gourd every few days and remove any that show signs of rotting.
—Rita Pelczar, Better Homes & Gardens, 8 Sep. 2023
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In summer, the water is as warm as 78 degrees and edged with slimy green algae blooms that float to the surface and rot.
—Los Angeles Times, 6 Dec. 2022
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The group’s soldiers lay uncovered and rotting where they were killed, pools of their blood staining the ground.
—Richard Engel, NBC News, 11 Oct. 2023
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Cutting too far outside the branch collar leaves wood that will rot and this rot can spread into the tree.
—Roy Berendsohn, Popular Mechanics, 17 July 2023
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Having a persistently damp floor in a bathroom can eventually rot out the floor and lead to very costly repairs.
—Jeanne Huber, Washington Post, 29 Mar. 2024
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The wind shifted, and an odor of rot enveloped the barge.
—New York Times, 14 June 2022
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The good news is the Rangers have already cleared out the rot and torn things down to the studs.
—Evan Grant, Dallas News, 12 Feb. 2021
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Even as a heap of rot, Nana is Venus, a stream of gold, a myth.
—Namwali Serpell, The New York Review of Books, 6 July 2022
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But the moral rot of the lie begins to poison his soul.
—Nate Jones, Vulture, 10 Aug. 2021
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Too much has happened in the country for the rot to have not been there.
—Angela Andaloro, Peoplemag, 14 Sep. 2023
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Slide back the plastic trim that rims the wheel arches to look for rot.
—Brett Berk, Car and Driver, 4 Sep. 2023
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Shells of which time had sucked out the rot, things that have done with dying.
—Matthew Gavin Frank, Harper's Magazine, 4 May 2023
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The rot sets in early, during the school years to be precise.
—Ananya Bhattacharya, Quartz, 23 Dec. 2021
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What is the rot in the democracy that allowed the 6th to happen?
—Daniella Diaz, CNN, 19 Dec. 2021
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The crop falls to the ground and rots, attracting elephants, drawn to the bounty.
—Tayari Jones, Travel + Leisure, 26 July 2023
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Nothing has been done about the rot that had been eating away at the sport for years.
—Alex Shephard, The New Republic, 3 May 2021
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The tree can’t absorb soil nutrients because of the rot, and the tree dies.
—oregonlive, 18 Dec. 2022
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Some senior Catholics have spoken out against the rot in the church and pushed for action.
—Andrew Higgins, New York Times, 28 Nov. 2022
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His face bore not the solemn trace of history but the mark of the national rot to come.
—Joseph O’Neill, The New Yorker, 11 Mar. 2024
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The story of the Senate’s rot is first and foremost the story of Mitch McConnell.
—Ira Shapiro, The New Republic, 6 May 2022
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The rot runs so deep that, per the duo, Republicans should boycott the runoffs.
—Rich Lowry, National Review, 4 Dec. 2020
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The 2019 training synopsis MPD shared with us reveals at least some of the rot in the tree.
—Ayanna Watkins, CNN, 11 Feb. 2023
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The extent of the rot, and the dire risks facing the building and its inhabitants, are well known.
—Simon Montlake, The Christian Science Monitor, 6 July 2023
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The boys lost to our culture’s rot need better role models.
—Liam Siegler, National Review, 30 July 2023
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Last year, my wife and I bought our first house, a 70-year-old Cape Cod with a little rot on the porch and a few cracks in the ceiling.
—Clint Carter, Popular Mechanics, 31 Aug. 2020
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And no need to worry about rot and fungus since the base has slots to allow airflow through the soil.
—Jennifer Carmichael, Better Homes & Gardens, 23 Feb. 2023
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Of course, to many members of the public, the rot is the only thing worth paying attention to.
—Dani Di Placido, Forbes, 19 Dec. 2022
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And if the rot is pervasive, buy a new roof with a new car under it instead.
—Ray Magliozzi, San Diego Union-Tribune, 20 Feb. 2022
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These things take time, though, and the rot at the club ran so deep it cannot be fixed overnight or in one transfer window or in one year.
—James Nalton, Forbes, 29 Dec. 2022
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Or, to take the bad-apple analogy on its own clichéd terms, the rot indeed spreads throughout the bunch.
—Samuel G. Freedman, The New Republic, 21 June 2023
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Paxton is the poster child for the rot created by a one-party system in this state.
—Gilbert Garcia, ExpressNews.com, 11 Dec. 2020
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These works illustrate how the roots of so much political rot can be found in the past.
—Kate Cray, The Atlantic, 11 Nov. 2022
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Cutting too far outside the branch collar leaves wood that will rot and this rot can spread into the tree.
—Roy Berendsohn, Popular Mechanics, 17 July 2023
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That was related to long-term wood rot and leaks, Noffsinger said.
—Alex Demarban, Anchorage Daily News, 11 Apr. 2023
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Some residents have been calling the group, saying that the fruit is already starting to fall off their trees and rot.
—Linda McIntosh, San Diego Union-Tribune, 16 Feb. 2024
Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'rot.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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