单词 | dry rot |
释义 | dry rotn. 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. ΘΚΠ society > occupation and work > materials > raw material > wood > [noun] > decayed wood > decay in wood dry rot1795 wet rot1864 dote1874 1795 (title) Some Observations on the Distemper in Timber called the Dry Rot. 1803 J. 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. 1830 J. Lindley Introd. Nat. Syst. Bot. 337 Of parasitical Fungi, the most important are those which are called dry rot. a1835 J. Macculloch Proofs & Illustr. Attributes God (1837) III. xlii. 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. figurative. A state of hidden or unsuspected moral or social decay tending to disintegration. ΘΚΠ society > morality > moral evil > moral or spiritual degeneration > [noun] > hidden dry rot1821 1821 Examiner 91/1 A species of political dry rot is pervading the whole community. 1881 W. Phillips in C. Martyn Life (1890) 586 The dry-rot of legislative corruption. Derivatives dry-rot v. (transitive) to affect with dry rot. ΚΠ 1870 J. R. Lowell Among my Bks. (1873) 1st Ser. 223 They are dry-rotting the very fibre of will and conscience. dry-rotten adj. decayed with dry rot. ΘΚΠ the world > matter > condition of matter > bad condition of matter > [adjective] > decayed > decayed with dry rot dry-rotten1818 1818 J. Bentham Church-of-Englandism 359 (note) The more completely and notoriously dry-rotten the whole fabric, the more money would be called for..for the support of it. 1883 American 7 4 Swept away as incapable and dry-rotten. This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1897; most recently modified version published online June 2022). < n.1795 |
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