| 释义 |
▪ 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.
c1325[see 2]. c1440Promp. Parv. 41 Blotte vpon a boke, oblitum. 1530Palsgr. 158 Vne paste, a blotte made with ynke. 1593Shakes. Rich. II, ii. i. 64 Inky blottes and rotten Parchment bonds. 1714Gay Trivia ii. 172 Whose dashing Hoofs..mark, with muddy Blots, the gazing 'Squire. 1866R. M. Ballantyne Shift. Winds xi. (1872) 110 A globule of ink, which fell on the paper..making a blot as large as a sixpence. 1876E. 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.
1704Swift T. Tub Author's Apol., Which he could have easily corrected with a very few Blots. 1788Burns 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.
1578Lyte Dodoens iii. cxiii. 306 It taketh away the hawe or webbe in the eye & al spottes or blottes in the same. 1595Shakes. John iii. i. 45 If thou..wert grim, Full of vnpleasing blots, and sightlesse staines. 1634Milton Comus 133 When the dragon womb Of Stygian darkness..makes one blot of all the air. 1730Thomson Autumn 1143 Distinction lost; and gay variety One universal blot. 1823Lamb Elia Ser. i. xxii. (1865) 169, I have a kindly yearning towards these poor blots [little sweeps]. 1853Kane Grinnell Exp. xix. (1856) 148 There are the black hills, blots upon rolling snow. 1872Black Adv. Phaeton xix. 262 That plain gilt cross..is rather a blot, is it not? 1912T. E. Lawrence Let. 20 Feb. (1938) 137 His two Kufti people..will be rather a blot on the landscape. 1960Wodehouse Jeeves in Offing i. 8 ‘And a rousing toodle-oo to you, you young blot on the landscape,’ she replied cordially. 1962Listener 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.
a1786A. 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. 1931Times 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. 1962Listener 19 July 95/2 The manipulation of accident in the blot landscapes of Alexander Cozens.
e. Painting. (See quot.)
1910Edin. 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).
c1325E.E. Allit. P. A. 781 Vnblemyst I am wyth-outen blot. c1386Chaucer Pars. T. 936 But lat no blotte be bihynde, lat no synne been vntoold. 1583Starkey England 193 Thys..ys a grete blot in our pollycy. 1671Milton Samson 411 O indignity, O blot To honour and religion! 1790Burke Fr. Rev. Wks. V. 61 Do these theorists..mean..to stain the throne of England with the blot of a continual usurpation? 1876Green Short Hist. iv. §3 (1882) 186 The execution of Wallace was the one blot on Edward's clemency. 1938E. Bowen Death of Heart i. iii. 60 Those four chaps were a blot. 1961M. Kelly Spoilt Kill ii. 116 The silly blot forgot to switch on.
b. Imputation of disgrace; defamation.
1587Mirr. Mag., Forrex iv. 7 Without the blots of everlasting blame. 1605Tryall 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. 1728Young 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.
1857Mrs. Carlyle Lett. (1883) II. 313 She will find Mrs. Cook's bill in my blot-book. 1866R. 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: [c indigo][1.] f.[/c] Biochem. The distribution pattern of proteins, nucleic acids, etc., on a medium on which they have been blotted (*blot v. 7).
1979Proc. 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. 1989Jrnl. 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.
1598Florio, Caccia, a hunting, a chasing..Also..a blot at tables. 1599Porter Angry Wom. Abing. (1841) 12 You neuer vse to misse a blot, Especially when it stands so faire to hit. 1672Wycherley Love in Wood v. v, Tho' I made a blot, your oversight has lost the game. 1880Boy'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.
1649G. Daniel Trinarch., Hen. IV, 367 Vpon termes gave over in the Sett, For Orleance, had the Dice, to save his Blott. 1698Dryden æneid Ded. (J.) He is too great a master of his art, to make a blot which may so easily be hit. 1734Pol. Ballads (1860) II. 248 Its faults..have taught him the wit, The blots of his neighbours the better to hit. 1781Cowper 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.
c1440Promp. Parv. 41 Blottyn bokys, oblitero. 1530Palsgr. 458, I blotte as a writer dothe with an yvele penne, je barbouille. 1698Dryden æneid ii. 293 His holy Fillets the blue Venom blots. c1750Shenstone Elegies iii. 8 And blots the mournful numbers with a tear. 1837Dickens Pickw. x, His note-book, blotted with the tears of sympathising humanity, lies open before us.
b. absol. To make blots.
1447O. Bokenham Seyntys (1835) 27 Evene as he [my pen] goth he doth blot. 1570R. Ascham Scholem. (Arb.) 116 Like pennes ouer full of incke, which will soner blotte, than make any faire letter at all. 1612Brinsley Lud. Lit. 29 Inke..which wil not run abroad, nor blot.
c. intr. To become blotted, contract a blot.
1860Trench 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.
1870Lowell 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.
1494Fabyan vii. 592 Whose oppinyons, for the heryng of them shuld be tedious & vnfruttefull, I therfore wyll nat wt them blot my booke. 1596Shakes. Merch. V. iii. ii. 253 Heere are a few of the vnpleasant'st words That euer blotted paper. 1607Topsell Four-f. Beasts 367, I spare to blot much paper with the recital of those things. a1652J. Smith Sel. Disc. i. 14 They are not always the best men that blot most paper.
b. To paint coarsely, to daub. (Cf. blottesque.)
1844Ruskin 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.
1566T. Stapleton Ret. Untr. Jewel Ep., And Blotted yourselfe so much, intending to Blemish your Adversarie. 1596Shakes. Tam. Shr. v. ii. 139 Vnknit that thretaning vnkinde brow..It blots thy beautie. 1644Milton Judgm. Bucer Wks. (1851) 301 To do me honour in that very thing, wherein these men thought to have blotted me. a1718Rowe (J.) Blot not thy innocence with guiltless blood.
absol.1588Shakes. L.L.L. iv. iii. 241 She passes prayse, then prayse too short doth blot.
†b. To stigmatize, calumniate, throw dirt at.
1581E. Campion in Confer. (1584) A a ij, Neyther doeth Paul blotte the holy Ghost when he saide that he was rudis sermone. 1595Shakes. John ii. i. 132 Theres a good mother, boy, that blots thy father! 1611Bible 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.)
1530Palsgr. 458/2 Who hath blotted out this worde. 1542–3Act 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. 1593Shakes. Rich. II, i. iii. 202 My name be blotted from the booke of Life. 1709Steele & Add. Tatler No. 75 ⁋8 By Culture, as skilful Gardiners blot a Colour out of a Tulip that hurts its Beauty. a1784Johnson in Boswell (1831) I. 307 He submitted that work to my castigation; and I remember I blotted a great many lines. 1859Tennyson Vivien 328, I took his brush and blotted out the bird.
absol.1737Pope 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.)
1561T. Norton Calvin's Inst. i. 19 Vtterly to blot and deface it out of mennes remembrance. 1611Bible Acts iii. 19 Repent yee therefore..that your sins may be blotted out. 1667Milton P.L. xi. 891 Not to blot out mankind. 1856Froude Hist. Eng. (1858) I. ii. 178 One, the tragedy of whose fate has blotted the remembrance of her sins. 1875Bryce 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.
1592Shakes. Ven. & Ad. 184 Like misty vapours when they blot the sky. 1718Rowe Lucan's Pharsalia i. (R.) The moon..Was blotted by the earth's approaching shade. 1780Cowper Table T. 270 No shades of superstition blot the day. 1862Wise New Forest, Neither sea nor sky is seen—nothing but a dense haze blotting everything.
6. To dry with blotting-paper.
1854W. 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.
1979Proc. 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. 1981Lancet 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. 1986Sci. Amer. Mar. 45/3 The DNA is unraveled into single strands and blotted onto special filter paper. 1989Jrnl. Autoimmunity II. 769 RNA extracted from..peritoneal macrophages..was blotted at the indicated concentrations to a Zeta-Bind nylon membrane. |