Part 410

Rote, n. [Cf. Rut roaring.] The noise produced by the surf of the sea dashing upon the shore. See Rut.

Rote, n. [OF. rote, F. route, road, path. See Route, and cf. Rut a furrow, Routine.] A frequent repetition of forms of speech without attention to the meaning; mere repetition; as, to learn rules by rote. Swift.

till he the first verse could [i. e., knew] all by rote.

Chaucer.

Thy love did read by rote, and could not spell.

Shak.

Rote, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Roted; p. pr. & vb. n. Roting.] To learn or repeat by rote. [Obs.] Shak.

Rote, v. i. To go out by rotation or succession; to rotate. [Obs.] Z. Grey.

Ro*tel"la (?), n. [NL., dim. of rota wheel; cf. LL. rotella a little whell.] (Zoöl.) Any one of numerous species of small, polished, brightcolored gastropods of the genus Rotella, native of tropical seas.

Rot"gut (?), n. 1. Bad small beer. [Slang]

2. Any bad spirituous liquor, especially when adulterated so as to be very deleterious. [Slang]

Roth"er (?), a. [AS. hryðer; cf. D. rund.] (Zoöl.) Bovine. -- n. A bovine beast. [Obs.] Shak.

Rother beasts, cattle of the bovine genus; black cattle. [Obs.] Golding. -- Rother soil, the dung of rother beasts.

Roth"er, n. [OE. See Rudder.] A rudder.

Rother nail, a nail with a very full head, used for fastening the rudder irons of ships; -- so called by shipwrights.

Ro"ti*fer (?; 277), n. [NL. see Rotifera.] (Zoöl.) One of the Rotifera. See Illust. in Appendix.

||Ro*tif"e*ra (?), n.; pl. [NL., from L. rota &?; wheel + ferre to ||bear.] (Zoöl.) An order of minute worms which usually have one or two ||groups of vibrating cilia on the head, which, when in motion, often ||give an appearance of rapidly revolving wheels. The species are very ||numerous in fresh waters, and are very diversified in form and ||habits.

Ro"ti*form (?), a. [L. rota wheel + -form.] 1. Wheel-shaped; as, rotiform appendages.

2. (Bot.) Same as Rotate.

Rot"ta (?), n. (Mus.) See Rota.

Rot"ten (?), a. [Icel. rotinn; akin to Sw. rutten, Dan. radden. See Rot.] Having rotted; putrid; decayed; as, a rotten apple; rotten meat. Hence: (a) Offensive to the smell; fetid; disgusting.

You common cry of curs! whose breath I hate As reek of the rotten fens.

Shak.

(b) Not firm or trusty; unsound; defective; treacherous; unsafe; as, a rotten plank, bone, stone. "The deepness of the rotten way." Knolles.

Rotten borough. See under Borough. -- Rotten stone (Min.), a soft stone, called also Tripoli (from the country from which it was formerly brought), used in all sorts of finer grinding and polishing in the arts, and for cleaning metallic substances. The name is also given to other friable siliceous stones applied to like uses.

Syn. -- Putrefied; decayed; carious; defective; unsound; corrupt; deceitful; treacherous.

-- Rot"ten*ly, adv. -- Rot"ten*ness, n.

||Rot"u*la (?), n. [L., a little wheel; cf. It. rotula.] (Anat.) The ||patella, or kneepan.