I. ˈblät, — usu -d.+V noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle English blot, blotte, perhaps from Middle French blotte, bloste, blostre clod, perhaps of Germanic origin; akin to Middle Dutch bluyster blister — more at blister
1.
a. : a soiling or disfiguring mark, spot, or stain (as of ink or earth)
a letter full of blots
b. : something resembling such a spot or mark especially in detracting from the excellence or beauty of the whole of which it is a part
these filthy streets are a blot on our city
2. : a spot on a reputation : a moral flaw : disgrace , reproach , blemish
3. archaic : a deliberate obliteration of something written or printed ; specifically : a mark covering something unwanted in a piece of writing
II. verb
( blotted ; blotted ; blotting ; blots )
Etymology: Middle English bloten, blotten, from blot, blotte, n.
transitive verb
1. : to spot, stain, or bespatter with some discoloring substance
her tears blotted the page as she wrote
2. obsolete : to spoil (as paper) with bad writing : write ineptly or clumsily
3. : to make obscure or indistinct : blot out : eclipse
4. obsolete
a. : to cause flawing of : mar , soil , impair
it blots thy beauty, as frosts do bite the meads — Shakespeare
especially : to stain with infamy : disgrace
to do me honor in that very thing, wherein these men thought to have blotted me — John Milton
b. : calumniate , stigmatize
there's a good mother, boy, that blots thy father — Shakespeare
5.
a. : to dry (as writing) with blotting paper or other absorbing agent
she hastily blotted her letter
b. : to remove (an unwanted deposit) by blotting with an absorbent material — often used with up
with a paper towel she carefully blotted up the ink she had spilled
intransitive verb
1. : to make a blot or blots
this pen blots badly
sometimes : to make an erasure
2. : to become marked with a blot : take a blot
this paper blots easily
•
- blot one's copybook
III. noun
( -s )
Etymology: origin unknown
1. : a backgammon man exposed to capture by being placed or left alone on a point
2. archaic : a weak point : failing ; also : an exposed point or mark
he is too great a master of his art to make a blot which may be so easily hit — John Dryden
IV. noun
: a sheet of cellulose nitrate or nylon that contains spots of immobilized macromolecules (as of DNA, RNA, or protein) or their fragments and is used to identify specific components of the spots by applying a molecular probe (as a complementary nucleic acid or a radiolabeled antibody) — see northern blot herein southern blot herein western blot herein