blot
/blɒt
/noun
1A dark mark or stain made by ink, paint, dirt, etc. a blot of ink...
- Its white breast was bordered by broad dark swaths and had a dark blot right in the center.
- Red blots of paint covered the soldiers' uniforms.
- On a lower shelf stands a small piece of clear Plexiglas upon which yellow blots have been painted.
Synonyms
spot, dot, mark, speck, fleck, blotch, smudge, patch, dab, smut, splash, smear, streak
informal splotch, splodge
1.1A shameful act or quality that damages an otherwise good character or reputation: the only blot on an otherwise clean campaign...
- It appears this is quite acceptable to an establishment that was too fastidious to allow clever and dedicated men without a blot on their characters, who happened to be hereditary peers, to legislate for us.
- This is almost universally regarded as a shameful blot on America's history, a cautionary tale of racism, paranoia, and wartime hysteria.
- I paid compensation and it was a blot on my character, but it was a one-off.
Synonyms
blemish, taint, flaw, fault, defect, stain, tarnishing, imperfection, blight;
disgrace, dishonour, stigma, brand, slur
1.2A thing that mars the appearance of something: wind power turbines are a blot on the landscape...
- Today relieved residents - who claimed the mast would pose unacceptable health risks and create a blot on the landscape - were celebrating a ‘victory for common sense.’
- Opponents claim that the 100 metre-high turbines, along with the transmission lines, underground cables and substations needed to transmit the electricity to the main network, are a blot on the landscape.
- ‘It's within a stone's throw of the Leeds-Liverpool canal conservation area, a listed mill building, a popular walking route and it would be a blot on the landscape,’ he said.
Synonyms
eyesore, monstrosity, carbuncle, atrocity, horror, mess
informal sight
2 Biochemistry A procedure in which proteins or nucleic acids separated on a gel are transferred directly to an immobilizing medium for identification.The protein blot results for these high-expressing lines are shown in Figure 5B....
- To detect other antigens present on these blots, no ‘stripping’ was performed.
- For each dot blot, bovine protein extract was loaded as a negative control and human saliva as a positive control.
verb (blots, blotting, blotted) [with object]
1Dry (a wet surface or substance) using an absorbent material: Henry blotted the page...
- Walls were blotted with absorbent paper before being lowered into the oil.
- Sculptured finishes may require use of a soft nylon - bristled brush in a rotating motion to get the detergent solution into all the crevices; blot up with absorbent cloth or paper towel, and rinse.
- Fresh material was rinsed in deionized water and blotted carefully with tissue paper.
Synonyms
soak up, absorb, take up, suck up, draw up, sponge up, mop up, sop up;
dry up, dry out;
dab, pat, press
2Mark or stain (something): (as adjective blotted) the writing was messy and blotted...
- And towering above them all, you have one of the dozens of cranes that continue to blot our capital's skyline, and no doubt will continue to do so for years to come.
- My hand is shaking as I write, and I fear that these pages will be blotted.
- Some of the ink had blotted already, spattered with black blood as it was - but it was still readable.
Synonyms
smudge, smear, spot, blotch, dot, mark, speckle, bespatter
2.1Damage the good character or reputation of: the turmoil blotted his memory of the school...
- Aware that I had unwittingly become the first person to blot his unblemished track record, I got the feeling as we parted he won't be rushing to return anymore of my phone calls.
- Not all athletes deserve our scepticism, and the Essendon captain, particularly, does not deserve a genuine goodness to be blotted by one misdemeanour.
- Mishaps too numerous and familiar to mention have blotted the Dear Leader's credentials as a tribune of the People.
3 (blot something out) Cover writing or pictures with ink or paint so that they cannot be seen: Mary dug her brush into black paint and blotted out her picture...
- Whenever the sight of her father's murder arose, she imagined a black paint brush going over the scene to blot it out.
- I have thought of blotting these words out with sand and starting again, but the Goddess speaks powerfully in me, and makes me bow my head to Her will.
- Rather than employing digital trickery or using the old-fashioned method of re-editing, he elected to blot out the offending material by a huge red block.
Synonyms
erase, obliterate, delete, efface, rub out, wipe out, blank out, remove all traces of, expunge, eliminate;
cancel, cross out, strike out
3.1Obscure a view: a dust shield blotting out the sun...
- Neighbours complained that the state of the house and garden depressed property prices and even made it impossible to grow vegetables in gardens because the sun was blotted out.
- He then apparently set out in more detail what he'd like to do next, but this proved too much for The Sun, which blotted it out.
- The problem is that the sun would be blotted out.
Synonyms
conceal, hide, obscure, exclude, obliterate, erase;
darken, dim, shadow, eclipse, cast a shadow over
3.2Obliterate or disregard something painful in one’s memory or existence: the concentration necessary to her job blotted out all the feelings...
- We have the means and enough reasons to blot this bogeyman out of existence.
- That is not to say that his memory was blotted out.
- The absolutely lowest moment of the series was in, I think, an episode for which the title has been blotted out of my memory.
Synonyms
wipe out, erase, efface, eradicate, obliterate, expunge, destroy, exterminate
4 Biochemistry Transfer by means of a blot.First, after electrophoresis of the proteins through a polyacrylamide gel, they are transferred by blotting to a porous membrane sheet....
- The DNA fragments are transferred or blotted to a nylon or nitrocellulose paper and baked to bind the single stranded DNA to the paper.
- I have purified, cloned, sub-cloned, transfected, blotted and detected DNA.
Phrases
blot one's copybook
Origin
Late Middle English: probably of Scandinavian origin and related to Old Norse blettr.