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 spot or stain of ink, mud, or other discoloring matter; a disfiguring spot or mark.
c. 1325. [see 2].
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 41. Blotte vpon a boke, oblitum.
1530. Palsgr., 158. Vne paste, a blotte made with ynke.
1593. Shaks., Rich. II., II. i. 64. Inky blottes and rotten Parchment bonds.
1714. Gay, Trivia, II. 172. Whose dashing Hoofs … mark, with muddy Blots, the gazing ’Squire.
1866. R. M. Ballantyne, Shifting Winds, xi. (1872), 110. A globule of ink, which fell on the paper … making a blot as large as a sixpence.
1876. E. 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.
1704. Swift, T. Tub, Author’s Apol. Which he could have easily corrected with a very few Blots.
1788. Burns, Lett., 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.
1578. Lyte, Dodoens, III. cxiii. 306. It taketh away the hawe or webbe in the eye & al spottes or blottes in the same.
1595. Shaks., John, III. i. 45. If thou … wert grim, Full of vnpleasing blots, and sightlesse staines.
1634. Milton, Comus, 133. When the dragon womb Of Stygian darkness … makes one blot of all the air.
1730. Thomson, Autumn, 1143. Distinction lost; and gay variety One universal blot.
1823. Lamb, Elia, Ser. i. xxii. (1865), 169. I have a kindly yearning towards these poor blots [little sweeps].
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., xix. (1856), 148. There are the black hills, blots upon rolling snow.
1872. Black, Adv. Phaeton, xix. 262. That plain gilt cross … is rather a blot, is it not?
2. fig. A moral stain; a disgrace, fault, blemish.
c. 1325. E. E. Allit. P., A. 781. Vnblemyst I am wyth-outen blot.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Parson’s T., 936. But lat no blotte be bihynde, lat no synne been vntoold.
1583. Starkey, England, 193. Thys … ys a grete blot in our pollycy.
1671. Milton, Samson, 411. O indignity, O blot To honour and religion!
1790. Burke, Fr. Rev., Wks. V. 61. Do these theorists … mean … to stain the throne of England with the blot of a continual usurpation?
1876. Green, Short Hist., iv. § 3 (1882), 186. The execution of Wallace was the one blot on Edward’s clemency.
b. Imputation of disgrace; defamation.
1587. Mirr. Mag., Forrex, iv. 7. Without the blots of everlasting blame.
1605. Tryall 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.
1728. Young, 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-book (Sc.) = blotting-book; blot-sheet (Sc.), a sheet of blotting-paper; blot-headed adj.
1857. Mrs. Carlyle, Lett. (1883), II. 313. She will find Mrs. Cook’s bill in my blot-book.
1866. R. M. Ballantyne, Shifting Winds, xi. (1872), 106. The Bu’ster stood by with the blot-sheet, looking eager, as if he rather wished for blots.
