(~s, ~ting, ~ted)
1.
When food, wood, or another substance ~s, or when something ~s it, it becomes softer and is gradually destroyed.
If we don’t unload it soon, the grain will start ~ting in the silos...
Sugary canned drinks ~ your teeth.
VERB: V, V n
2.
If there is ~ in something, especially something that is made of wood, parts of it have decayed and fallen apart.
Investigations had revealed extensive ~ in the beams under the ground floor...
N-UNCOUNT
3.
You can use the ~ to refer to the way something gradually gets worse. For example, if you are talking about the time when the ~ set in, you are talking about the time when a situation began to get steadily worse and worse.
In many schools, the ~ is beginning to set in. Standards are falling all the time...
N-SING: the N
4.
If you say that someone is being left to ~ in a particular place, especially in a prison, you mean that they are being left there and their physical and mental condition is being allowed to get worse and worse.
Most governments simply leave the long-term jobless to ~ on the dole.
VERB: V prep
5.
see also dry ~