[f. as prec. + -ER1.]
1. One who, or that which, blots.
a. A scribbler, a sorry writer; b. One who stains or defiles; c. Blotter out: a quencher, extinguisher, annihilator.
1601. Cornwallyes, Ess., XV. These blotters of paper.
a. 1631. Harsnet, Serm., in Stuart’s Serm. (1656), 131 (L.). Thou tookest the blotting of Thine image in Paradise as a blemish to Thyself; and Thou saidst to the blotter, Because thou hast done it, on thy belly shalt thou creep.
1827. Hood, Hero & Leander, lxxxiv. Blank Oblivion—Blotter-out of light.
2. A thing used for drying wet ink-marks, as a piece of blotting-paper or a blotting-pad.
1591. Percivall, Sp. Dict., Borrador, a blotter, a blotting paper.
1859. R. Burton, Centr. Afr., in Jrnl. Geogr. Soc., XXIX. 78. Paper—soft and soppy by the loss of glazing—acts as a blotter.
1884. Boston Lit. World, 19 April, 132/2. His pen spluttered … and he used no blotter.
3. ‘A term applied in counting-houses to a waste-book’ (Craig, 1847); also to a rough copy of a letter.
