Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A scoundrel.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One who talks or writes ‘rot’; a humbug.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A worthless, despicable person.
  • noun UK, slang A scoundrel.
  • noun UK, slang, journalism A non-accredited journalist.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a person who is deemed to be despicable or contemptible

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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Examples

  • Chigmok, he ees no good, he what you call a rotter, but he not dare to do this ting heemself. "

    A Mating in the Wilds Ottwell Binns

  • That retarded kid is the reason the rotter was a problem in the first place!

    EMPIRE DAVID DUNWOODY 2008

  • That retarded kid is the reason the rotter was a problem in the first place!

    EMPIRE DAVID DUNWOODY 2008

  • That retarded kid is the reason the rotter was a problem in the first place!

    EMPIRE DAVID DUNWOODY 2008

  • It could have been hard, Varakov decided, for a man like Karamatsov" a despoiler, what the British before World War II in their days of empire would have called a "rotter" " to live with flawless beauty such as Natalia possessed.

    The Doomsayer AHERN, Jerry 1981

  • It could have been hard, Varakov decided, for a man like Karamatsov — a despoiler, what the British before World War II in their days of empire would have called a "rotter" — to live with flawless beauty such as Natalia possessed.

    The Doomsayer Ahern, Jerry 1981

  • Odessa fell first, I think, owing to the commander there being what we commonly call a "rotter"; he seemed to be of no use, and Odessa was taken by the Bolshevists.

    The Situation in Russia 1921

  • If you consulted your business experience instead of your ugly individualistic philosophy, you would know that believing in himself is one of the commonest signs of a rotter.

    Notable & Quotable 2011

  • My behavior toward you, of course, now depends on your reputation and thus what you have done to others: if you have been a cad and a rotter, I am less likely to trust you to deliver.

    SuperCooperators Martin A. Nowak 2011

  • When Katherine Parkinson who is lovely as Conceptiva, but hobbled, like everyone else, by this dead script tells Stephen Fry what a rotter he is, he replies: "Indeed, I am a lovelington and a softie boots."

    TV review: The Bleak Old Shop of Stuff; King of Christmas Lights 2011

Comments

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  • "You low cad! You ought to be ducked in the horsepond, you rotter!"

    Joyce, Ulysses, 15

    February 5, 2007

  • A refrigerator compartment, usually on the lower shelf, designed to turn vegetables into mush.

    August 13, 2008

  • Ha! Yes, bilby. An urban truism!

    August 13, 2008