[A comparatively recent word, with no cognates outside Eng. App. an onomatopœic modification of BLOT, for which it is commonly used dialectally: the sound seems to express a broader spreading blot, of the nature of a patch. But in sense 1 there may have been association with the earlier BOTCH. The suggestion that it is a variant of BLATCH ‘blacking,’ finds no support in the history of either word.]
1. An inflamed eruption, or discolored patch, on the skin; a pustule, boil or botch.
1604. [see BLOTCHED].
1669. W. Simpson, Hydrol. Chym., 72. In its road it leaves its character of Spots, Stains, Blotches, Buboes, Ulcers, &c. in … the skin.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 16, ¶ 2. Healing those Blotches and Tumours which break out in the Body.
1740. Cheyne, Regimen, Pref. p. xxxiv. The Diseases of Infancy are generally Scabs, Blotches and Blains over the Face, Head, Eyes and Ears.
1866. Rogers, Agric. & Prices, I. xv. 293. Dark blotches appear on the skin.
fig. 1882. Farrar, Early Chr., II. 199. Which showed that they regarded Gentiles as worthless, and even Proselytes as little better than a blotch on the health of Israel.
b. spec. A disease in dogs.
1824. Annals Sporting, VI. 265. I found his haunches exhibited appearances of a disease … termed the ‘blotch.’
2. A large irregular spot or blot of ink, color, etc.; a dab or patch.
1768. Tucker, Lt. Nat., II. 396. To brush off the soil … and not suffer it to gather in pitchy blotches upon the surface.
1807. Sir R. Wilson, in Life, II. vii. 83. The snow fell in large blotches.
1870. H. Macmillan, Bible Teach., x. 201. Its leaves are covered with brown unsightly blotches.
1873. Moggridge, Ants & Spiders, II. 76. Four blotches of paler colour.
b. fig. = BLOT 2.
1860. Hawthorne, Marble Faun (1879), II. xii. 122. Ignoring all moral blotches.
c. transf. A rude clumsy daub.
1860. Smiles, Self-Help, iv. 71. The artist … attempting to produce a brilliant effect at a dash, will only produce a blotch.
d. A shapeless object.
1872. Browning, Fifine, lxxix. 17. Catch the puniest … And, as you nip the blotch ’twixt thumb and fingernail, [etc.].
3. = BLOT (of ink). (North of Eng. and Scotl.)
1863. Atkinson, Provinc. Danby, Blotch, a blot, in a copy-book, or on a clean piece of paper. Blotch paper, blotting paper. [Cf. BLOTCHING, BLOTCHY.]
