| Milk getting spoilt is a bacterial activity. Meat getting rotten is a fungal activity. |
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A neat solution, FluidnMotion-- I like it... were it not for the first entry in the online Oxford:
verb (
rotted,
rotting)
1 decompose by the action of bacteria and fungi.
I went looking, and there seem to be a range of definitions out there. Overeall, rot seems to be more specific-- the action of rotting agents, while spoil tends to indicate a more general 'make unfit for consumption'. Here is more than we need to know from the American Heritage Dictionary:
SYNONYMS:decay,
rot,
putrefy,
spoil,
crumble,
molder,
disintegrate,
decompose These verbs refer to gradual change resulting in destruction or dissolution.
Decay can denote partial deterioration short of complete destruction:
Brush and floss regularly to prevent teeth from decaying. Rot is sometimes synonymous with
decay, but often, like
putrefy, stresses offensiveness to the sense of smell:
The food left on the counter began to rot. Arctic cold prevented the prehistoric animal from putrefying. Spoil usually refers to the process by which perishable substances become unfit for use or consumption:
Put the fish in the refrigerator before they spoil. Crumble implies physical breakdown into small fragments or particles:
The ancient church had crumbled to ruins. To
molder is to crumble to dust:
The shawl had moldered away in the trunk. Disintegrate refers to complete breakdown into component parts:
The sandstone façade had disintegrated from exposure to the elements. Decompose,
largely restricted to the breakdown of substances into their chemical
components, also connotes rotting and putrefying, both literally and
figuratively:
“trivial personalities decomposing in the eternity of print” (Virginia Woolf).