From Middle English blot.

• (RP) IPA: /blɒt/
• (America) IPA: /blɑt/

blot (plural blots)

1. A blemish, spot or stain made by a coloured substance.
   • 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:

     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.

   • 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 ↗:

     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?

2. (by extension) A stain on someone's reputation or character; a disgrace.
   • 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 V, scene iii], page 43 ↗, column 1:

     Thy ouerflow of good, conuerts to bad, / And thy abundant goodneſſe ſhall excuſe / This deadly blot, in thy digreſſing ſonne.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC ↗, Proverbs 9:7 ↗, column 2:

     He that reproueth a ſcorner, getteth to himſelfe ſhame: and he that rebuketh a wicked man, getteth himſelfe a blot.

   • 1785, William Cowper, “Book II. The Time-piece.”, in The Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson;  […], →OCLC ↗, page 46 ↗:

     Thus man devotes his brother, and deſtroys; / And worſe than all, and moſt to be deplored / As human nature’s broadeſt, fouleſt blot, / Chains him, and taſks him, and exacts his ſweat / With ſtripes, that mercy with a bleeding heart / Weeps when ſhe ſees inflicted on a beaſt.

3. (biochemistry) A method of transferring proteins, DNA or RNA, onto a carrier.
4. (backgammon) An exposed piece in backgammon.

• blotch

• French: tache, (ink) pâté
• German: Fleck, Klecks
• Italian: macchia
• Portuguese: mancha, borrão
• Russian: пятно́
• Spanish: mancha

• French: souillure
• German: Schandfleck
• Portuguese: mácula
• Russian: позо́р
• Spanish: desdoro

blot (blots, present participle blotting; simple past and past participle blotted)

1. (transitive) To cause a blot (on something) by spilling a coloured substance.
2. (intransitive) To soak up or absorb liquid.

   This paper blots easily.

3. (transitive) To dry (writing, etc.) with blotting paper.
4. (transitive) To spot, stain, or bespatter, as with ink.
   • 1566, George Gascoigne, Dan Bartholmew of Bath:

     The briefe was writte and blotted all with gore, […]

5. (transitive) To impair; to damage; to mar; to soil.
   • c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act V, scene ii], page 229 ↗, column 1:

     It blots thy beautie, as froſts doe bite the Meads, […]

6. (transitive) To stain with infamy; to disgrace.
   • 1707, Nicholas Rowe, The Royal Convert:

     Blot not thy Innocence with guiltleſs Blood.

7. (transitive) To obliterate, as writing with ink; to cancel; to efface; generally with out.

   to blot out a word or a sentence

   • 1681, John Dryden, The Spanish Fryar: Or, the Double Discovery. […], London: […] Richard Tonson and Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC ↗, Act V, page 82 ↗:

     One act like this blots out a thouſand Crimes.

8. (transitive) To obscure; to eclipse; to shadow.
   • 1656, Abraham Cowley, Davideis:

     He ſung how Earth blots the Moons gilded Wane, […]

9. (transitive, MLE) To sell illegal drugs, to deal, to push.
10. (backgammon, transitive) To hit a blot.

• French: tacher
• German: beflecken, kleckern
• Italian: macchiare
• Portuguese: manchar, borrar
• Spanish: emborronar, manchar

• Italian: assorbire

• German: ablöschen