Blot Meaning
/blɒt/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA blemish, spot or stain made by a coloured substance.
nounA stain on someone's reputation or character; a disgrace.
Sentence Examples
This blot can't be wiped out.
These factories are a blot on the landscape.
CEFR Practice Quiz
She tried to remove the ink ____ from her white shirt with a cloth.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
He used a tissue to ____ the spilled ink from the white tablecloth.
Word Origin & History
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”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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."
— 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:
"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: […]"
— 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:
"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?"
— 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:
"[…] 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."
— 1918, Siegfried Sassoon, “The Death-Bed”, in The Old Huntsman and Other Poems, London: Heinemann, page 95:
"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."
— 1955 January, R. S. McNaught, “From the Severn to the Mersey by Great Western”, in Railway Magazine, pages 18-19:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
She tried to remove the ink ____ from her white shirt with a cloth.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
He used a tissue to ____ the spilled ink from the white tablecloth.