Library / English Dictionary

BLOT

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

Irregular inflected forms: blotted    , blotting   

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

An act that brings discredit to the person who does it

Example:

he made a huge blot on his copybook

Synonyms:

blot; smear; smirch; spot; stain

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("blot" is a kind of...):

error; fault; mistake (a wrong action attributable to bad judgment or ignorance or inattention)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A blemish made by dirt

Example:

he had a smudge on his cheek

Synonyms:

blot; daub; slur; smear; smirch; smudge; spot

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("blot" is a kind of...):

blemish; defect; mar (a mark or flaw that spoils the appearance of something (especially on a person's body))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "blot"):

blotch; splodge; splotch (an irregularly shaped spot)

fingermark; fingerprint (a smudge made by a (dirty) finger)

inkblot (a blot made with ink)

Derivation:

blot (make a spot or mark onto)

blot (dry (ink) with blotting paper)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Make a spot or mark onto

Example:

The wine spotted the tablecloth

Synonyms:

blob; blot; fleck; spot

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "blot" is one way to...):

change surface (undergo or cause to undergo a change in the surface)

Verb group:

stain (produce or leave stains)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "blot"):

splotch (blotch or spot)

defile; maculate; stain; sully; tarnish (make dirty or spotty, as by exposure to air; also used metaphorically)

bespeckle; speckle (mark with small spots)

bespatter; spatter (spot, splash, or soil)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

blot (a blemish made by dirt)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Dry (ink) with blotting paper

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "blot" is one way to...):

absorb; draw; imbibe; soak up; sop up; suck; suck up; take in; take up (take in, also metaphorically)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

blot (a blemish made by dirt)

blotter (absorbent paper used to dry ink)

Credits

 Context examples: 

Applications include Northern and Southern blots, in situ hybridization techniques, and diagnostic tests.

(DNA Probes, NCI Thesaurus)

I observe among you some lines of an institution, which, in its original, might have been tolerable, but these half erased, and the rest wholly blurred and blotted by corruptions.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

While Opportunity is powered by sunlight, which is blotted out by dust at its current location, Curiosity has a nuclear-powered battery that runs day and night.

(Martian Dust Storm Grows Global: Curiosity Captures Photos of Thickening Haze, NASA)

Elimination, especially by blotting out, cutting out, or erasing.

(Deletion, NCI Thesaurus)

This, blotted with tears, was the letter.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

It was a foolish precipitation last Christmas, but the evil of a few days may be blotted out in part.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Little girl, a memory without blot or contamination must be an exquisite treasure—an inexhaustible source of pure refreshment: is it not?

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

"That's the reason I was born in it," observed Jo pensively, quite unconscious of the blot on her nose.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

With the exception of this little blot, Emma found that his visit hitherto had given her friend only good ideas of him.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Nuclear extracts contain proteins in nuclear compartment of the cell and are used to monitor transcription factor activation in a variety of standard protocols, including electrophoresis mobility shift assay (EMSA), DNA footprinting, Western blotting and preparative purification of nuclear proteins.

(Nuclear Extract, NCI Thesaurus)