rote 
The rote of the surf on Menimsha Bight 
Murmurs its warning. 
Walter Mitchell, In the Vineyard Sound, Harper's Weekly, 
[XXXIV. 743. 
ithin sound of the rote, of the sea. 
Stedman, Poets of America, p. 224. 
rote 5 t, . A Middle English form of rooft. 
rote 6 t, c. A Middle English form of rooft. 
rotella (ro-tel'a), .; pi. rotella (-e). [ML., 
dim. of L. rota,"!!, wheel: see rota 1 . Cf. rowel. 
from the same source.] 1. A disk; a round 
plate. 2. A round shield. 3. [cap.'] [NL.] A 
genus of gastropods of the family KoteHidse, 
containing small polished highly colored shells, 
as B. suturalis. 4. Any member of this genus. 
Rotellidae (ro-tel'i-de), n. pi. [NL., < Rotella 
+ -idee.] A family of scutibranchiate gastro- 
pods, typified by the genus Kotella, united gen- 
erally with the TrocJiidas. 
rotent, A Middle English form of rotten*-. 
rote-song (rot'song), . A song to be taught 
by rote, or by frequent repetition to the learner, 
as a child before it is able to read. 
rot-grass (rot'gras), n. The soft-grass, Holms 
lanatus and N. moltis; also, the butterwort, 
Pinguicula rulgaris, and the pennywort or pen- 
ny-rot, Hydrocotyle rulgaris : so culled as being 
supposed to cause rot in sheep. [Prov. Eng.] 
rotgut (rot'gut), . and n. [< rot, v., + obi. 
gut.'] I. n. Bad or adulterated liquor, injuri- 
ous to the stomach and bowels ; in the United 
States, specifically, whisky adulterated with 
deleterious substances to cheapen it while in- 
creasing its apparent strength. [Colloq. and 
low.] -. 
They overwhelm their paunch daily with a kind of flat 
rotgut; we with a bitter dreggish small liquor. Harvey. 
Rot-yut : cheap whiskey ; the word occurs in Hey wood's 
"English Traveller" and Addison's "Drummer "for a poor 
kind of drink. Lowell, Biglow Papers, 2d ser., Int. 
II. a. Injurious and corrosive: said of bad 
liquor. [Colloq. and low.] 
Then there 's fuddling about in the public-house, and 
drinking bad spirits, and punch, and such rot-yvt stuif. 
T. Hughes, School Days at Rugby, i. 6. 
rotheln (re'teln), w. [G.] Same as rubella. 
rother 1 . n. An obsolete or dialectal form of 
rudder*. 
rother 2 (roTH'er), n. [< ME. rother, rcother, 
rither, rethcr (pi. rothercs, retheren, rutheren, 
ritheren), < AS. Imther, hryther, a horned beast, 
an ox, bull, cow, pi. liritheru, hrytheru, hrythera, 
hrutheru, hrytliro, earlier with long vowel liri- 
ther, etc., horned cattle, oxen, = Oldies, hritlier, 
rither, rcder = D. rund = OHG. hrind, rind, 
MHG. rint (rind-), G. rind, (the formative -cr 
being retained in the plural rinder), a horned 
beast, an ox, etc., pi. rinder. horned cattle (> rin- 
derpest, >E. rinderpest, a cattle-plague), = Goth. 
"hriiitkis or 'hrunthis (not recorded). Connec- 
tion with liorn is doubtful : see horn.] A bovine 
animal; a cow, or an animal of the cow kind. 
[Obsolete or prov. Eng.] 
Foure rotheren hym by-forn that feble were [worthen) 
Men myste reken ich a ryb, so reufull they weren. 
Piers Plouman'e Crede (E. E. T. S.X 1. 481. 
It is the pasture lards the rolher't sides, 
The want that makes him lean. 
Shot., T. of A., iv. 3. 12. 
[In this passage rotter's Is an emendation of brother's, 
which is given in most editions.) 
rother 3 (roTH'er), n. [Abbr. of rotlier-soil.'] 
Cattle-dung; manure. [Obsolete or local, Eng.] 
rother-beast (roTH'er-best), w. A bovine or 
rother. 
Bucerum poecws, an hearde of rother beastes. 
Elyot, ed. 1558. (HoUiwett.) 
rothermuck (roTH'er-muk), . The barnacle- 
goose, Anser berniclu or Bernicla leucopsis. 
Montagu. [Local, British.] 
rother-nail (roTH'er-nal), n. [That is, rudder- 
nail.'] In ship-building, a nail with a very full 
head, used for fastening the rudder-irons. 
[Eng.] 
rother-SOil (roTH'er-soil), n. [< rather + 
soil?.] Cattle-dung; manure. [Obsolete or 
prov. Eng.] 
In Herefordshire the dung of such [horned) beasts is 
still called rother soul. 
Eennctt, MS. Lansd. 1033. (HaUiwell.) 
Eothesay herald. One of the six heralds of 
the Scottish Heralds' College. 
rothoffite (rot'hof-it), . [< Bothoff(l) + -ite*.] 
A variety of garnet, brown or black in color, 
found in Sweden. 
Rotifer (ro'ti-fer), n. [NL. (Leeuwenhoek, 1702), 
having a wheel, < L. rota, a wheel (see rota*) 
+ ferre = E. fteari.] 1. The name-giving ge- 
nus of Rotifem, based upon a species called B. 
5238 
vulgaris, and now placed in the family Pliil<><li- 
nidae, including forms which swim or creep like 
a leech, and have a forked, jointed, telescopic 
foot. Hence 2. [I. c.] One of the Kotiferu 
(which see); any wheel-animalcule. Rotifers are 
A Scinopod Rotifer. I'tdalian mira (ventral view of female, highly 
magnified). 
A, head with trochal disk of a double wreath ; a', the cephalotroch ; 
a", the branchiotroch ; Jt, appendaged foot, or pseudoDodium ; c c . 
rf* ' .//, four pairs of appendages. The dark bands aie the mus 
cles. 
found all 
rotour 
ing (see pseudoputlinm. 2, and cut under Rottfer) ; in a few 
genera it is wanting. The body is covered with a firm 
cuticle, and sometimes also sheathed in a protective case 
(see urceolus); it often presents peculiar spinose or setose 
appendages. The muscular system may be quite highly 
developed, as in Pedalion, where it consists of several 
symmetrically disposed bands. In the alimentary canal 
may usually be distinguished a mouth, pharynx, esopha- 
gus, stomach, intestine, and anus. The pharynx contains 
the mastax with its teeth or truphi, among which are 
parts called malleus, incus, uncus, fulcrum, ramus, and 
manubrium (see these names, and. cut under uncus). All 
true rotifers have a mastax ; its homologies are disputed. 
Both the pharynx and the esophagus are chitinized. The 
intestine is lined with ciliated epithelium. Nephrldia arc 
present ; a nervous system is demonstrable ; and various 
sense-organs, as eye-spots, are recognized. Eotifers were 
supposed to be hermaphroditic : but separation of sex has 
been determined for most members of the class, the males 
being in all such cases small and degenerate in comparison 
with the females. Details of the reproductive process 
vary in different cases. The classification of Rutifera, as 
well as the taxonomic rank and systematic position of the 
group, is not yet settled, as some equivocal or aberrant 
forms remain to be accounted for. Exclusive of these, a 
reel ossification given by C. T. Hudson in 1884, and gen- 
erally accepted, is into four orders : (1) Rhizota, rooted 
rotifers, with families Flosculariidx and tlelicertidee; (2) 
Bdelloida(or BdeUiijrada), creeping rotifeis, with one fam- 
ily . called Philodinil/e, though containing the original ge- 
nus Rot\fer; (3) Scirtopoda, skipping rotifers, the Peda- 
Konute.wlth onegenus(see cut under fiottfer); and(4) Ploi 
ma, or swimming rotifers, the rest of the class. These are 
either illpricate (the Hydatinida, Synchxtitlar, A'otomma- 
tida, Triarthridte, and Asflanchnidse) or loricate (the 
Brachionidai, 1'teroiiinidie, and EucManida-). Ranked as 
a superclass or phylum, the rotifers have also been divided 
into two classes: Parapodiata, represented alone by the 
genus Pedalion; and Lipopoda, all the rest. One of the 
commonest rotifers is Hydatina tenta, belonging to the II- 
loricate ploimate group. 
rotiferal (ro-tif'e-ral), a. [< rotifer + -al] 
Bearing a wheel that is, having a wheel-or- 
gan; pertaining to the Botifera or wheel-ani- 
malcules, or having their characters; rotatorial 
or rotatory, as an animalcule. Encuc. Brit., 
XXI. 8. 
world, in salt as well as fresh water, rotiferan (ro-tif'e-ran) n 
' 
B 
rotifers can be desiccated and kept lnVdry'state"~for ler - Mature, XLI. 378. [Rare.] 
months and still be revived by the application of moisture. rotiferOUS (ro-tif'e-rus), a. [< rotifer + -ous.~] 
Botifera (ro-tif 'e-ra), n. pi. [NL., neut. pi. of Having a wheel, as a wheel-animalcule ; pro- 
Rotifer: see Botifer.] A class of animalcules, vided with a trochal disk or wheel -organ ; re- 
usually classified with or near the lowest worms, lating to rotifers. 
rotiforrn (ro'ti-fdrm), a. [= F. rotiforme, < L. 
rota, a wheel (see rotary), + forma, form.] 
Wheel-shaped; rotate. 
rotispinalis (ro'tl-spi-nti'lis), n.; pi. rotispina- 
les (-\ez). [NL., < L. rota, a wheel, + spina, 
spine : see spinal.] A muscle of the back which 
assists in rotating the vertebra? ; one of the ro- 
tatores spinae. Coves and Shute, 1887. 
rotl (rot'l), . [Ar.] An Arabian pound of 
twelve ounces. Each city has its own rotls for different 
commodities, so that the number of these units is great 
Few weigh less than a troy pound, about one third of them 
have weights between one and two, another third between 
two and five, and the remainder between five and ninety 
troy pounds. The following are a few of the rotls now 
In use : 
*_-, Pounds 
Grams. Avoirdupois. 
Egypt 444 0.98 
Tripoli, market 1817 4.01 
" large 2180 4.81 
Tunis, for metals 607 1.12 
" fruit, etc 668 1.17 
" " vegetables 639 1.41 
Abyssinia 311 0.69 
Morocco 608 1.12 
Acre, for raw cotton 2207 4.87 
" " yarn 2087 4.49 
Aleppo, for flgs, etc 2280 5.03 
" silk 2220 4.89 
" Persian silk 2154 4.76 
" " drugs 1902 4.19 
Damascus 1787 3.94 
Hydatitta ttttta, one of the illoricate ploimate Jtfti/era, magnified. 
./, female: a, anus; t>, contractile vacuole ; c, water-vessels; e, 
ovary ; /, ganglion. . male : a. penis ; *, contractile vacuole ; t, tes- 
' s >/> 
wheel 
, . . . , 
ganglion; f. setigerous pit. In both 
or wreath and the fo 
ous pit 
rked f 
foot are unma 
, 
figures the conspicuous 
arked. 
distinguished by their circles of cilia, some- 
times single, sometimes double, which through ro tonde (ro-tond'), . [F., < rotonde, round: 
the microscope appear like revolymg whee s, 8ee rotund.-] 1 . A ruff of the kind worn during 
whence they have been called wheel-ammalcule.1 the ear . y years of the seventeen th century by 
and Botatorta. They are a small but well-marked both men and WATTIPTI rnmnare rwtTl 1 9 A 
group, whose true position in the evolutionary series is , er#S L--8. A 
much questioned. Some of the forms have been known c Pe, the ecclesiastical garment especially so 
for nearly two centuries, and many others have only re- called when considered as an object of decora- 
cently been brought to light Being all of microscopic tive art. 
size, and often appearing in infusions, the rotifers that rotondo (ro-ton'dol n K Tt rntfmrJn 
were known up to about 1838, the period of Ehrenberg's Io a >> " ^ f* n "","' . 
researches, were considered to be protozoan, and thev see round!, rotund.] In music, round; full. 
iparatlvely high 
le of development Rotifers present great attractions 
to the microscopist, and have been much studied ; and the 
organization of few of the low invertebrates is better known. 
They are true inetazoans, of microscopic size, bilaterally 
symmetrical, usually without metameric segmentation, 
always with an intestinal canal and a body-cavity or coelom, 
and with an anus as well as a mouth (except in one group). 
. 
Head and tail are generally well marked; the former bears, rnt.nnrt 
under many modifications, the characteristic wheel-organ F "!' 3 A 
I propose to use the name rotor (short for rotator) to mean 
a quantity having magnitude, direction, and position, of 
which the simplest type is a velocity of rotation about a 
certain axis. A rotor will be geometrically represented 
by a length proportional to its magnitude measured upon 
lte axis in a certain sense. 
K - Clifford, I.ond. Math. Soc. Proc., 1873, p. 381. 
, 
which gives name to the group, and is technically called 
the trochal disk (see cut under trochal); the tail or foot- 
body, called pseiidopodimn, is variously modified as a loco- 
motory organ for swimming, skipping, creeping, or root- 
3 
see **] 
( OF 1 *rntsinr ( rnt/> a 
. , ' UT ' * TOte ' ft 
A player on the rote. 
He is a persone, she thynkethe, of fair figure, 
A yong rotour, redy to hlr pleasier 
Lydgate, Minor Poems, p. 35. (HalliweU.) 
