blot
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /blɒt/
rhymes: -ɒt
ipa: /blɑt/
Forms: form: blots
Etymology: From Middle English blot (“blot, spot, stain, blemish”). Perhaps from Old Norse *blettr (“blot, stain”) (only attested in documents from after Old Norse transitioned to Icelandic blettur), or from Old French bloche (“clod of earth”).
Senses: examples: text: England bound in with the triumphant ſea, / Whoſe rocky ſhore beates backe the enuious ſiedge / Of watery Neptune, is now bound in with ſhame, / With Inky blottes, and rotten Parchment bonds.
ref: 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], page 28, column 2:
text: When I and some others subscribed our names / To a plot for expelling my master king James [James II of England]; / I withdrew my subscription by help of a blot, / And so might discover or gain by the plot: […]
ref: 1711 [December?] (date written), Jonathan Swift, “An Excellent New Song. Being the Intended Speech of a Famous Orator against Peace [i.e., Daniel Finch, 2nd Earl of Nottingham].”, in Thomas Sheridan, John Nichols, editors, The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, […], new edition, volume VII, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], published 1801, →OCLC, page 72:
text: Her utmost powers of expression (which were certainly not great in ink) were exhausted in the attempt to write what she felt on the subject of my journey. Four sides of incoherent and interjectional beginnings of sentences, that had no end, except blots, were inadequate to afford her any relief. But the blots were more expressive to me than the best composition; for they showed me that Peggotty had been crying all over the paper, and what could I have desired more?
ref: 1849 May – 1850 November, Charles Dickens, “Chapter XVII. Somebody Turns Up.”, in The Personal History of David Copperfield, London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1850, →OCLC, page 176:
text: […] He was blind; he could not see the stars
Glinting among the wraiths of wandering cloud;
Queer blots of colour, purple, scarlet, green,
Flickered and faded in his drowning eyes.
ref: 1918, Siegfried Sassoon, “The Death-Bed”, in The Old Huntsman and Other Poems, London: Heinemann, page 95:
text: But, like more than one similar North Wales beauty-spot, there had to be (at least at the time of which I write), a quarry, or ironworks, or some kind of industrial plant, which lay perpetually under a cloud of yellowish smoke—literally a blot on the landscape.
ref: 1955 January, R. S. McNaught, “From the Severn to the Mersey by Great Western”, in Railway Magazine, pages 18-19:
glosses: A blemish, spot or stain made by a coloured substance.
examples: text: Thy ouerflow of good, conuerts to bad, / And thy abundant goodneſſe ſhall excuſe / This deadly blot, in thy digreſſing ſonne.
ref: 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii], page 43, column 1:
text: He that reproueth a ſcorner, getteth to himſelfe ſhame: and he that rebuketh a wicked man, getteth himſelfe a blot.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Proverbs 9:7, column 2:
text: Thus man devotes his brother, and deſtroys; / And worſe than all, and moſt to be deplored / As human nature’s broadeſt, fouleſt blot, / Chains him, and taſks him, and exacts his ſweat / With ſtripes, that mercy with a bleeding heart / Weeps when ſhe ſees inflicted on a beaſt.
ref: 1785, William Cowper, “Book II. The Time-piece.”, in The Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson; […], →OCLC, page 46:
text: The only blot on this service is that of its Kentish Town connections, which throughout the day in many cases just miss the St. Pancras-Luton stopping trains.
ref: 1960 February, “The dieselised St. Pancras suburban service”, in Trains Illustrated, page 95:
glosses: A stain on someone's reputation or character; a disgrace.
topics: biochemistry
biology
chemistry
microbiology
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: A method of transferring proteins, DNA or RNA, onto a carrier.
topics: backgammon
games
glosses: An exposed piece in backgammon.
Derived terms: sense: Terms derived from blot (noun)
word: beblot
sense: Terms derived from blot (noun)
word: blotless
sense: Terms derived from blot (noun)
word: blot on the escutcheon
sense: Terms derived from blot (noun)
word: blottesque
sense: Terms derived from blot (noun)
word: blot test
sense: Terms derived from blot (noun)
word: blotto
sense: Terms derived from blot (noun)
word: blotty
sense: Terms derived from blot (noun)
word: dot blot
sense: Terms derived from blot (noun)
word: electroblot
sense: Terms derived from blot (noun)
word: histoblot
sense: Terms derived from blot (noun)
word: immunoblot
sense: Terms derived from blot (noun)
word: inkblot
sense: Terms derived from blot (noun)
word: interblot
sense: Terms derived from blot (noun)
word: Northern blot analysis
sense: Terms derived from blot (noun)
word: northern blot analysis
sense: Terms derived from blot (noun)
word: Southern blot
sense: Terms derived from blot (noun)
word: Western blot
sense: Terms derived from blot (noun)
word: western blot analysis
sense: Terms derived from blot (noun)
word: Western blot analysis
sense: Terms derived from blot (noun)
word: zoo blot
Related terms: english: possibly derived
translation: possibly derived
word: blotch