blotch

Etymology

Definitions

1. 1

   An uneven patch of color or discoloration.

   • 1711, Joseph Addison and Richard Steele, The Spectator, London: J. & R. Tonson, 12th edition, Volume I, No. 16, p. 68, […] in healing those Blotches and Tumours which break out in the body […]
   • Since the day in which this reformation began, by how many strange and critical turns has it been perfected and handed down, if not, entirely without spot or wrinkle,—at least, without great blotches or marks of anility.
   • Snow lay on the croft and river-bank in undulations softer than the limbs of infancy; […] it clothed the rough turnip-field with whiteness, and made the sheep look like dark blotches;
2. 2

   An irregularly shaped area.

   • At Coleman's Hill, the upper beds consist of yellowish, soft, gritty sandstone, containing some small calcareous fragments, a few pebbles of quartz, blotches of red shale, and fragments of sandstone with impressions of stems of plants.
   • His shirt showed big blotches of moisture, and the sweat was rolling in clear drops along the creases in his brown neck.
   • Microscopic and sometimes macroscopic examination of the apparently healthy intervening tissue may reveal the fungus connecting the blotches of diseased tissue.
3. 3

   Imperfection

   Imperfection; blemish on one’s reputation, stain.

4. ›+ 6 more definitionsshow fewer

   1. 4

      Any of various crop diseases that cause the plant to form spots.

      • The fungus causing blotch lives through the winter in the cankers which it has developed on twigs, water sprouts, and fruit spurs.
      • Blue mold and the black rot fungus are most Commonly found associated with blotch in this way.
      • Blotch is one of the most common and serious diseases of A. bisporus and is responsible for considerable losses.
   2. 5

      A bright or dark spot on old film caused by dirt and loss of the gelatin covering the…

      A bright or dark spot on old film caused by dirt and loss of the gelatin covering the film, due to age and poor film quality.

      • Archive film materials are particularly degraded by blotch, scratch, flicker and noise.
   3. 6

      A dark spot on the skin

      A dark spot on the skin; a pustule.

   4. 7

      Blotting paper.

   5. 8

      To mark with blotches.

      • Just beyond were two ancient stone pillars, weather-stained and lichen-blotched bearing upon their summits a shapeless something which had once been the rampant lion of Capus of Birlstone.
   6. 9

      To develop blotches, to become blotchy.

      • Our waistline will extend a few more inches at least, and our aging skin will blotch and sag.
      • These areas, which also will take longer to dry, are the ones that will blotch when a dye or oil-based finish is applied.

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