Emily Dickinson Lexicon

ROT, n.

1. A fatal distemper incident to sheep, usually supposed to be owing to wet seasons and moist pastures. The immediate cause of the mortality of sheep, in this disease, is found to be a great number of small animals, called flukes, (Fasciola,) found in the liver, and supposed to be produced from eggs swallowed with their food. Encyc.
2. Putrefaction; putrid decay. Philips.
3. Dry rot, in timber, the decay of the wood without the access of water.