blotch

== English == === Etymology === Uncertain. Perhaps a blend of blot +‎ botch. === Pronunciation === (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /blɒtʃ/ (General American) IPA(key): /blɑt͡ʃ/ Rhymes: -ɒtʃ === Noun === blotch (plural blotches) 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,[1] […] in healing those Blotches and Tumours which break out in the body […] 1921, Wallace Stevens, Sur Ma Guzzla Gracile, Palace of the Babies, in Poetry, Volume 19, No. 1,[4] The disbeliever walked the moonlit place, Outside the gates of hammered serafin, Observing the moon-blotches on the walls. An irregularly shaped area. (figuratively) Imperfection; blemish on one’s reputation, stain. 1921, Warren G. Harding, Inaugural address, in Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States: from George Washington to Barack Obama, Washington, D.C.: U.S. G.P.O., 1989,[6] There never can be equality of rewards or possessions so long as the human plan contains varied talents and differing degrees of industry and thrift, but ours ought to be a country free from the great blotches of distressed poverty. Any of various crop diseases that cause the plant to form spots. 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. A dark spot on the skin; a pustule. (slang) Blotting paper. ==== Derived terms ==== ==== Translations ==== === Verb === blotch (third-person singular simple present blotches, present participle blotching, simple past and past participle blotched) (transitive) To mark with blotches. 1770, Arthur Young, A Six Months Tour through the North of England, London: W. Strahan, Volume 2, p. 258,[7] Upon the whole, the spirit and relief of the figures, with the strength of the colouring, render it a most noble picture; and it is not done in the coarse blotching stile, so common to the pieces which pass under the name of Bassan. 1918, D. H. Lawrence, Parliament Hill in the Evening in New Poems,[10] The houses fade in a melt of mist Blotching the thick, soiled air With reddish places that still resist The Night’s slow care. (intransitive) To develop blotches, to become blotchy. 1878, Arthur Morecamp (pseudonym of Thomas Pilgrim), Live Boys; or, Charley and Nasho in Texas, Boston: Lee & Shepard, Chapter 17, p. 166,[12] […] when a man is going to drive cattle out of the county he has to put a road-brand on them […] It is generally made of letters or figures, or something that won’t cross lines, because where they cross they are apt to blotch and then it’s hard to tell what the brand is and who the animal belongs to. ==== Derived terms ==== blotched (adjective)