| 释义 |
dry rot, dry-rot
1. A decayed condition of timber in confined situations, in which it becomes brittle and crumbles to a dry powder; caused by various fungi, esp. species of Polyporus and Merulius, or by slow chemical processes. Also applied to any fungus causing this.
1795(title) Some Observations on the Distemper in Timber called the Dry Rot. 1803J. Papworth (title) An Essay on the Cause of the Dry Rot in Buildings; with some Observations on the Cure of the Dry Rot, by the Admission of Air into the Parts of Buildings affected with that Disease. 1830Lindley Nat. Syst. Bot. 337 Of parasitical Fungi, the most important are those which are called dry rot. a1835J. MacCulloch Proofs & Illustr. Attrib. God (1837) 121 The far greater number of these imaginary cases of dry-rot are no other than this, the usual chemical decomposition of the hard vegetable fibre.
2. fig. A state of hidden or unsuspected moral or social decay tending to disintegration.
1821Examiner 91/1 A species of political dry rot is pervading the whole community. 1881W. Phillips in C. Martyn Life (1890) 586 The dry-rot of legislative corruption.
Hence dry-rot v. trans., to affect with dry rot. dry-rotten ppl. a., decayed with dry rot.
1818Bentham Ch. Eng. 359 note, The more completely and notoriously dry-rotten the whole fabric, the more money would be called for..for the support of it. 1870Lowell Among my Bks. Ser. i. (1873) 223 They are dry-rotting the very fibre of will and conscience. 1883American VII. 4 Swept away as incapable and dry-rotten. |