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Dry rot   /draɪ rɑt/   Listen
noun
Rot  n.  
1.
Process of rotting; decay; putrefaction.
2.
(Bot.) A disease or decay in fruits, leaves, or wood, supposed to be caused by minute fungi. See Bitter rot, Black rot, etc., below.
3.
A fatal distemper which attacks sheep and sometimes other animals. It is due to the presence of a parasitic worm in the liver or gall bladder. See 1st Fluke, 2. "His cattle must of rot and murrain die."
Bitter rot (Bot.), a disease of apples, caused by the fungus Glaeosporium fructigenum.
Black rot (Bot.), a disease of grapevines, attacking the leaves and fruit, caused by the fungus Laestadia Bidwellii.
Dry rot (Bot.) See under Dry.
Grinder's rot (Med.) See under Grinder.
Potato rot. (Bot.) See under Potato.
White rot (Bot.), a disease of grapes, first appearing in whitish pustules on the fruit, caused by the fungus Coniothyrium diplodiella.


adjective
Dry  adj.  (compar. drier; superl. driest)  
1.
Free from moisture; having little humidity or none; arid; not wet or moist; deficient in the natural or normal supply of moisture, as rain or fluid of any kind; said especially:
(a)
Of the weather: Free from rain or mist. "The weather, we agreed, was too dry for the season."
(b)
Of vegetable matter: Free from juices or sap; not succulent; not green; as, dry wood or hay.
(c)
Of animals: Not giving milk; as, the cow is dry.
(d)
Of persons: Thirsty; needing drink. "Give the dry fool drink."
(e)
Of the eyes: Not shedding tears. "Not a dry eye was to be seen in the assembly."
(f)
(Med.) Of certain morbid conditions, in which there is entire or comparative absence of moisture; as, dry gangrene; dry catarrh.
2.
Destitute of that which interests or amuses; barren; unembellished; jejune; plain. "These epistles will become less dry, more susceptible of ornament."
3.
Characterized by a quality somewhat severe, grave, or hard; hence, sharp; keen; shrewd; quaint; as, a dry tone or manner; dry wit. "He was rather a dry, shrewd kind of body."
4.
(Fine Arts) Exhibiting a sharp, frigid preciseness of execution, or the want of a delicate contour in form, and of easy transition in coloring.
Dry area (Arch.), a small open space reserved outside the foundation of a building to guard it from damp.
Dry blow.
(a)
(Med.) A blow which inflicts no wound, and causes no effusion of blood.
(b)
A quick, sharp blow.
Dry bone (Min.), Smithsonite, or carbonate of zinc; a miner's term.
Dry castor (Zool.) a kind of beaver; called also parchment beaver.
Dry cupping. (Med.) See under Cupping.
Dry dock. See under Dock.
Dry fat. See Dry vat (below).
Dry light, pure unobstructed light; hence, a clear, impartial view. "The scientific man must keep his feelings under stern control, lest they obtrude into his researches, and color the dry light in which alone science desires to see its objects."
Dry masonry. See Masonry.
Dry measure, a system of measures of volume for dry or coarse articles, by the bushel, peck, etc.
Dry pile (Physics), a form of the Voltaic pile, constructed without the use of a liquid, affording a feeble current, and chiefly useful in the construction of electroscopes of great delicacy; called also Zamboni's, from the names of the two earliest constructors of it.
Dry pipe (Steam Engine), a pipe which conducts dry steam from a boiler.
Dry plate (Photog.), a glass plate having a dry coating sensitive to light, upon which photographic negatives or pictures can be made, without moistening.
Dry-plate process, the process of photographing with dry plates.
Dry point. (Fine Arts)
(a)
An engraving made with the needle instead of the burin, in which the work is done nearly as in etching, but is finished without the use acid.
(b)
A print from such an engraving, usually upon paper.
(c)
Hence: The needle with which such an engraving is made.
Dry rent (Eng. Law), a rent reserved by deed, without a clause of distress.
Dry rot, a decay of timber, reducing its fibers to the condition of a dry powdery dust, often accompanied by the presence of a peculiar fungus (Merulius lacrymans), which is sometimes considered the cause of the decay; but it is more probable that the real cause is the decomposition of the wood itself. Called also sap rot, and, in the United States, powder post.
Dry stove, a hothouse adapted to preserving the plants of arid climates.
Dry vat, a vat, basket, or other receptacle for dry articles.
Dry wine, that in which the saccharine matter and fermentation were so exactly balanced, that they have wholly neutralized each other, and no sweetness is perceptible; opposed to sweet wine, in which the saccharine matter is in excess.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Dry rot" Quotes from Famous Books



... cuss and ordered some the next year, and I put them up in fruit jars and figured I would plant them in the spring, and when the spring came they all had the dry rot. ...
— Northern Nut Growers Association Incorporated 39th Annual Report - at Norris, Tenn. September 13-15 1948 • Various
... Gowing noticed I was not smoking: offered me another cigar, which I politely declined. Gowing began his usual sniffing, so, anticipating him, I said: "You're not going to complain of the smell of paint again?" He said: "No, not this time; but I'll tell you what, I distinctly smell dry rot." I don't often make jokes, but I replied: "You're talking a lot of DRY ROT yourself." I could not help roaring at this, and Carrie said her sides quite ached with laughter. I never was so immensely tickled ...
— The Diary of a Nobody • George Grossmith and Weedon Grossmith
... Count of Hapsburg. Take another name; be for a time a soldier of fortune. Bury the Count of Hapsburg for a year or two; be plain Sir Max Anybody. You will, at least, see the world and learn what life really is. Here is naught but dry rot and mould. Taste for once the zest of living; then come back, if you can, to this tomb. Come, come, Max! Let us to Burgundy to win this fair lady who awaits us and doubtless holds us faint of heart because we dare not strike ...
— Yolanda: Maid of Burgundy • Charles Major
... other matters, Bramah shot ahead of the mechanical necessities of his time; and hence many of his patents (of which he held at one time more than twenty) proved altogether profitless. His last patent, taken out in 1814, was for the application of Roman cement to timber for the purpose of preventing dry rot. ...
— Industrial Biography - Iron Workers and Tool Makers • Samuel Smiles
... Tom's younger brother. "We have been giving it pretty strong lately, with playing tricks on Sarah the cook, Jack the hired man, and Uncle Randolph's pet dog Alexander. But then we, had to do something — or go into a dry rot. Life in the country is all well enough, but ...
— The Rover Boys at School • Arthur M. Winfield
... our ecclesiastical contemporary, The Guardian, recently appeared one asking for an effectual way of "exterminating dry rot, and preventing its re-appearance in a church." Why doesn't the reverend inquirer try somebody else's Sermons? Or have no ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 104, March 18, 1893 • Various
... the ordinary course of events would have been the going on of the party until it died of dry rot and decay, as the Liberals had already died in Ontario; but fortunately, both for the party and for Laurier's subsequent fame—though it may not have seemed so at the time—emergence of the reciprocity question gave it an opportunity ...
— Laurier: A Study in Canadian Politics • J. W. Dafoe
... task before him, whatever it may be. If he had not, he could not have passed the examination necessary to gain this scholarship. Now Torrington's sadly needs a few lads like this, for it is beginning to suffer from the dry rot that a great name often brings to a school after some years. The sons of wealthy men are sent there, who have no need to toil with either hands or brains, and they take care not to do it themselves, and to hinder others ...
— That Scholarship Boy • Emma Leslie


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