stop the rot

rot | American Dictionary

rot
verb[ I/T ]
us/rɑt/-tt-
to decay, or to cause something to decay or weaken:
[ I ]The fallen apples rotted on the ground.
[ T ]Dampness rotted the old wood.

rot

noun[ U ]us/rɑt/
Rot weakened the beams in the house.

Examples of rot

rot
Thus, they discovered various fungal organisms associated with spear rot and bud rot symptoms.
In both species, seeds lacking testae began to soften about day 8, were often attacked by fungus, and had rotted completely by day 10.
Most of the seeds that were not destroyed, removed, or disappeared, eventually rotted (12.9% of all non-elephant-dispersed seeds).
It should be noted here that rotting need not always have the wholly negative connotations that it does for us.
Some of the conclusions run counter to common plantation practice such as leaving damaged and rotting pods amongst the cocoa trees.
In the early 1980s, we noticed that these collections were improperly stored and would soon rot away if something were not done.
But the sea breezes often failed to move the banks of hammers; worse, prolonged calm turned vatfuls of rotting rags into waste.
Itching feet and foot rot are probably due to excreted parasitic helminth worms capable of penetrating bare feet.
A further factor relates to the potential biological deterioration of cell wall components by soft rot fungi, thereby reducing the strength of the wood.
The other below average-yield grower experienced severe brown rot in the mid-1990s which damaged the trees.
These resistance mechanisms may include chemical defences against fungal rot and seed predators, and chemical and/or structural deterrence of herbivores.
After serious trauma or death, some types of plants collapse and begin to rot.
Smaller plants, fungi and invertebrates (including termites) also live on or within rotting wood in the ghost forest.
The wood from these rapid-growing trees is weak, spongy and rots easily.
After 1-2 y pods rot and can easily be opened by small rodents.
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These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.