▪ I. blot, n.1
(blɒt)
Also 4–6 blotte, 5–7 blott, 6 blote.
[Appears first in 14th c.: no corresponding form is known outside English, and the word may be really connected with plot, or may unite a notion of spot with some words in bl-. It has been compared with ON. blettr blot, stain, plot, spot of ground, Da. plet spot, blot, stain; and with Ger. bletz, Goth. plats patch of cloth: but no normal phonetic relation to these words can be affirmed.]
1. a. A spot or stain of ink, mud, or other discolouring matter; a disfiguring spot or mark.
| c 1325 [see 2]. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 41 Blotte vpon a boke, oblitum. 1530 Palsgr. 158 Vne paste, a blotte made with ynke. 1593 Shakes. Rich. II, ii. i. 64 Inky blottes and rotten Parchment bonds. 1714 Gay Trivia ii. 172 Whose dashing Hoofs..mark, with muddy Blots, the gazing 'Squire. 1866 R. M. Ballantyne Shift. Winds xi. (1872) 110 A globule of ink, which fell on the paper..making a blot as large as a sixpence. 1876 E. Jenkins Blot Queen's Head 31 The ruthless hand had painted in an ugly black crown, which..only looked like a great blot. |
b. An obliteration by way of correction.
| 1704 Swift T. Tub Author's Apol., Which he could have easily corrected with a very few Blots. 1788 Burns Let. clxvii. Wks. (Globe) 437 Glance over the foregoing verses and let me have your blots. |
c. transf. Any black or dark patch, especially as contrasted with light surroundings; also, anything that sullies or mars a fair surface, a blemish or disfigurement. Esp. in phr. a blot (up)on the landscape; also fig.
| 1578 Lyte Dodoens iii. cxiii. 306 It taketh away the hawe or webbe in the eye & al spottes or blottes in the same. 1595 Shakes. John iii. i. 45 If thou..wert grim, Full of vnpleasing blots, and sightlesse staines. 1634 Milton Comus 133 When the dragon womb Of Stygian darkness..makes one blot of all the air. 1730 Thomson Autumn 1143 Distinction lost; and gay variety One universal blot. 1823 Lamb Elia Ser. i. xxii. (1865) 169, I have a kindly yearning towards these poor blots [little sweeps]. 1853 Kane Grinnell Exp. xix. (1856) 148 There are the black hills, blots upon rolling snow. 1872 Black Adv. Phaeton xix. 262 That plain gilt cross..is rather a blot, is it not? 1912 T. E. Lawrence Let. 20 Feb. (1938) 137 His two Kufti people..will be rather a blot on the landscape. 1960 Wodehouse Jeeves in Offing i. 8 ‘And a rousing toodle-oo to you, you young blot on the landscape,’ she replied cordially. 1962 Listener 11 Jan. 90/2 Charabancs and monstrous hordes of hikers are blots upon the landscape. |
d. spec. A set of ink-blots made on a piece of paper as a basis for the composition of an imaginary landscape, according to the technique invented by Alex. Cozens (d. 1786). (Cf. Rorschach.) Also attrib.
| a 1786 A. Cozens New Method in Drawing Landscape 7 A blot is an assemblage of dark shapes or masses made with ink upon a piece of paper. All the shapes are rude and unmeaning, as they are formed with the swiftest hand. But at the same time there appears a general disposition of these masses, producing one comprehensive form. 1931 Times 24 Mar. 19/6 Examples of Cozens's ‘blots’ have long been known. But it was only the other day that five blots accompanied by the five drawings made from them, were discovered. 1962 Listener 19 July 95/2 The manipulation of accident in the blot landscapes of Alexander Cozens. |
e. Painting. (See quot.)
| 1910 Edin. Rev. Apr. 371 Painters are accustomed to speak of the ‘Blot’ of a picture, meaning its immediate appearance as colour, line, massing, or flat space. |
2. fig. a. A moral stain; a disgrace, fault, blemish. Also in extended use: a person who is a disgrace (Webster, 1909).
| c 1325 E.E. Allit. P. A. 781 Vnblemyst I am wyth-outen blot. c 1386 Chaucer Pars. T. 936 But lat no blotte be bihynde, lat no synne been vntoold. 1583 Starkey England 193 Thys..ys a grete blot in our pollycy. 1671 Milton Samson 411 O indignity, O blot To honour and religion! 1790 Burke Fr. Rev. Wks. V. 61 Do these theorists..mean..to stain the throne of England with the blot of a continual usurpation? 1876 Green Short Hist. iv. §3 (1882) 186 The execution of Wallace was the one blot on Edward's clemency. 1938 E. Bowen Death of Heart i. iii. 60 Those four chaps were a blot. 1961 M. Kelly Spoilt Kill ii. 116 The silly blot forgot to switch on. |
b. Imputation of disgrace; defamation.
| 1587 Mirr. Mag., Forrex iv. 7 Without the blots of everlasting blame. 1605 Tryall Chev. iv. i. in Bullen O. Pl. III. 324 Of all that ever liv'd deserv'd she not The worlds reproch and times perpetuall blot. 1728 Young Love Fame v. (1757) 139 If on your fame our sex a blot has thrown, 'Twill ever stick, thro' malice of your own. |
3. Comb., as blot-headed adj.; blot-book (Sc.) = blotting-book; blot-sheet (Sc.), a sheet of blotting-paper.
| 1857 Mrs. Carlyle Lett. (1883) II. 313 She will find Mrs. Cook's bill in my blot-book. 1866 R. M. Ballantyne Shift. Winds. xi. (1872) 106 The Bu'ster stood by with the blot-sheet, looking eager, as if he rather wished for blots. |
Add: [1.] f. Biochem. The distribution pattern of proteins, nucleic acids, etc., on a medium on which they have been blotted (*blot v. 7).
| 1979 Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. LXXVI. 860 (caption) Localization of the V and C regions in Ch603α6 by hybridization to Southern blots. Ibid. LXXVI. 4354/1 Enzymes separated on polyacrylamide gels could also be conveniently localized on blots by in situ assays. 1989 Jrnl. Autoimmunity II. 769 (caption) The blot was hybridized with a 32P labeled IFN-α4-specific cDNA probe, and autoradiographed for 24 h. |
▪ II. blot, n.2
[Origin conjectural: the sense suggests Da. blot, Sw. blott bare, naked, uncovered, Du. bloot naked, exposed (cf. blootstellen to expose), if the history of backgammon should support such an origin. (The word is not used as a n., nor app. in this special sense in any of these langs.)]
In Backgammon: An exposed piece or ‘man’ liable to be taken or forfeited; also, the action of so exposing a piece. to hit a blot: to ‘take’ the piece so exposed.
| 1598 Florio, Caccia, a hunting, a chasing..Also..a blot at tables. 1599 Porter Angry Wom. Abing. (1841) 12 You neuer vse to misse a blot, Especially when it stands so faire to hit. 1672 Wycherley Love in Wood v. v, Tho' I made a blot, your oversight has lost the game. 1880 Boy's own Bk. 620 The frequent occurrence of this taking of a blot gives an adversary a great advantage. |
b. fig. An exposed or weak point in one's procedure; a fault or failing; also, a mark, butt.
| 1649 G. Daniel Trinarch., Hen. IV, 367 Vpon termes gave over in the Sett, For Orleance, had the Dice, to save his Blott. 1698 Dryden æneid Ded. (J.) He is too great a master of his art, to make a blot which may so easily be hit. 1734 Pol. Ballads (1860) II. 248 Its faults..have taught him the wit, The blots of his neighbours the better to hit. 1781 Cowper Hope 558 The very butt of slander, and the blot For every dart that malice ever shot. Mod. Here the critic has undoubtedly hit a blot. |
▪ III. blot, v.1
(blɒt)
[f. blot n.1]
1. trans. To spot or stain with ink or other discolouring liquid or matter; to blur.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 41 Blottyn bokys, oblitero. 1530 Palsgr. 458, I blotte as a writer dothe with an yvele penne, je barbouille. 1698 Dryden æneid ii. 293 His holy Fillets the blue Venom blots. c 1750 Shenstone Elegies iii. 8 And blots the mournful numbers with a tear. 1837 Dickens Pickw. x, His note-book, blotted with the tears of sympathising humanity, lies open before us. |
b. absol. To make blots.
| 1447 O. Bokenham Seyntys (1835) 27 Evene as he [my pen] goth he doth blot. 1570 R. Ascham Scholem. (Arb.) 116 Like pennes ouer full of incke, which will soner blotte, than make any faire letter at all. 1612 Brinsley Lud. Lit. 29 Inke..which wil not run abroad, nor blot. |
c. intr. To become blotted, contract a blot.
| 1860 Trench Serm. Westm. Abb. xiii. 144 The soul in this resembling paper which, where it has been blotted once, however careful the erasure of the blot may have been, there more easily blots and runs anew than elsewhere. |
d. trans. To write with blots or blottesquely.
| 1870 Lowell Among my Bks. Ser. i. (1873) 242 Trammels and pot-hooks which the little Shearjashubs and Elkanahs blotted and blubbered across their copy-books. |
2. To cover (paper) with worthless writing; to disfigure. arch. or Obs.
| 1494 Fabyan vii. 592 Whose oppinyons, for the heryng of them shuld be tedious & vnfruttefull, I therfore wyll nat w{supt} them blot my booke. 1596 Shakes. Merch. V. iii. ii. 253 Heere are a few of the vnpleasant'st words That euer blotted paper. 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts 367, I spare to blot much paper with the recital of those things. a 1652 J. Smith Sel. Disc. i. 14 They are not always the best men that blot most paper. |
b. To paint coarsely, to daub. (Cf. blottesque.)
| 1844 Ruskin Mod. Paint. Pref. 67 Cattermole..began his career with finished and studied pictures, which never paid him; he now prostitutes his fine talent..and blots his way to emolument and oblivion. |
3. fig. a. To cast a blot upon (good qualities or reputation); to tarnish, stain, sully. arch. or Obs.
| 1566 T. Stapleton Ret. Untr. Jewel Ep., And Blotted yourselfe so much, intending to Blemish your Adversarie. 1596 Shakes. Tam. Shr. v. ii. 139 Vnknit that thretaning vnkinde brow..It blots thy beautie. 1644 Milton Judgm. Bucer Wks. (1851) 301 To do me honour in that very thing, wherein these men thought to have blotted me. a 1718 Rowe (J.) Blot not thy innocence with guiltless blood. |
| absol. 1588 Shakes. L.L.L. iv. iii. 241 She passes prayse, then prayse too short doth blot. |
† b. To stigmatize, calumniate, throw dirt at.
| 1581 E. Campion in Confer. (1584) A a ij, Neyther doeth Paul blotte the holy Ghost when he saide that he was rudis sermone. 1595 Shakes. John ii. i. 132 Theres a good mother, boy, that blots thy father! 1611 Bible Pref. 2 He hath been blotted by some to bee an Epitomiste. |
4. To make a blot over (writing) so as to make it illegible; to obliterate, efface. (Usually with out.)
| 1530 Palsgr. 458/2 Who hath blotted out this worde. 1542–3 Act 34 & 35 Hen. VIII, i, Persons, hauinge anie bibles..with anie suche annotacions or preambles shall..cutte out or blotte the same, in such wise, as they cannot be perceiued nor red. 1593 Shakes. Rich. II, i. iii. 202 My name be blotted from the booke of Life. 1709 Steele & Add. Tatler No. 75 ¶8 By Culture, as skilful Gardiners blot a Colour out of a Tulip that hurts its Beauty. a 1784 Johnson in Boswell (1831) I. 307 He submitted that work to my castigation; and I remember I blotted a great many lines. 1859 Tennyson Vivien 328, I took his brush and blotted out the bird. |
| absol. 1737 Pope Hor. Epist. ii. i. 281 The last and greatest art, the art to blot. |
5. fig. To efface, wipe out of existence, sight, or memory; to annihilate, destroy. (Usually with out.)
| 1561 T. Norton Calvin's Inst. i. 19 Vtterly to blot and deface it out of mennes remembrance. 1611 Bible Acts iii. 19 Repent yee therefore..that your sins may be blotted out. 1667 Milton P.L. xi. 891 Not to blot out mankind. 1856 Froude Hist. Eng. (1858) I. ii. 178 One, the tragedy of whose fate has blotted the remembrance of her sins. 1875 Bryce Holy Rom. Emp. vii. (ed. 5) 113 As the Persian monarchy had been blotted out by Alexander. |
b. To put out of sight, obscure, eclipse; also fig.
| 1592 Shakes. Ven. & Ad. 184 Like misty vapours when they blot the sky. 1718 Rowe Lucan's Pharsalia i. (R.) The moon..Was blotted by the earth's approaching shade. 1780 Cowper Table T. 270 No shades of superstition blot the day. 1862 Wise New Forest, Neither sea nor sky is seen—nothing but a dense haze blotting everything. |
6. To dry with blotting-paper.
| 1854 W. Collins Hide & Seek I. 214 (Hoppe) Here Mr. Thorpe carefully blotted the first page of the letter. |
Add: 7. Biochem. To transfer (biochemical material under analysis) from a medium used for electrophoretic separation to an immobilizing medium on which specific target molecules can be identified.
| 1979 Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. LXXVI. 4350/2 The gel to be blotted was put on the nitrocellulose sheet and care was taken to remove all air bubbles. 1981 Lancet 21 Nov. 1126/1 After digestion, restricted DNA was run on 1{pcnt} agarose gels, in the presence of size markers, and ‘blotted’ onto nitrocellulose filters. 1986 Sci. Amer. Mar. 45/3 The DNA is unraveled into single strands and blotted onto special filter paper. 1989 Jrnl. Autoimmunity II. 769 RNA extracted from..peritoneal macrophages..was blotted at the indicated concentrations to a Zeta-Bind nylon membrane. |