[f. BLOT sb.1]
1. trans. To spot or stain with ink or other discoloring liquid or matter; to blur.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 41. Blottyn bokys, oblitero.
1530. Palsgr., 458. I blotte as a writer dothe with an yvele penne, je barbouille.
1698. Dryden, Æneid, II. 293. His holy Fillets the blue Venom blots.
c. 1750. Shenstone, Elegies, iii. 8. And blots the mournful numbers with a tear.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., x. His note-book, blotted with the tears of sympathising humanity, lies open before us.
b. absol. To make blots.
1447. Bokenham, Seyntys (1835), 27. Evene as he [my pen] goth he doth blot.
1570. Ascham, Scholem. (Arb.), 116. Like pennes ouer full of incke, which will soner blotte, than make any faire letter at all.
1612. Brinsley, Lud. Lit., 29. Inke … which wil not run abroad, nor blot.
c. intr. To become blotted, contract a blot.
1860. Trench, Serm. Westm. Abb., xiii. 144. The soul in this resembling paper which, where it has been blotted once, however careful the erasure of the blot may have been, there more easily blots and runs anew than elsewhere.
d. trans. To write with blots or blottesquely.
1870. Lowell, Among My Books, Ser. I. (1873), 242. Trammels and pot-hooks which the little Shearjashubs and Elkanahs blotted and blubbered across their copy-books.
2. To cover (paper) with worthless writing; to disfigure. arch. or Obs.
1494. Fabyan, VII. 592. Whose oppinyons, for the heryng of them shuld be tedious & vnfruttefull, I therfore wyll nat wt them blot my booke.
1596. Shaks., Merch. V., III. ii. 253. Heere are a few of the vnpleasant’st words That euer blotted paper.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 367. I spare to blot much paper with the recital of those things.
a. 1652. J. Smith, Sel. Disc., I. 14. They are not always the best men that blot most paper.
b. To paint coarsely, to daub. (Cf. BLOTTESQUE.)
1844. Ruskin, Mod. Paint., Pref. 67. Cattermole … began his career with finished and studied pictures, which never paid him; he now prostitutes his fine talent … and blots his way to emolument and oblivion.
3. fig. a. To cast a blot upon (good qualities or reputation); to tarnish, stain, sully. arch. or Obs.
1566. T. Stapleton, Ret. Untr. Jewel, Ep. And Blotted your selfe so much, intending to Blemish your Aduersary.
1596. Shaks., Tam. Shr., V. ii. 139. Vnknit that thretaning vnkinde brow … It blots thy beautie.
1644. Milton, Judgm. Bucer, Wks. (1851), 301. To do me honour in that very thing, wherein these men thought to have blotted me.
1708. Rowe, Royal Convert, II. Wks. (1720), II. 33 (J.). Blot not thy Innocence with guiltless Blood.
absol. 1588. Shaks., L. L. L., IV. iii. 241. She passes prayse, then prayse too short doth blot.
† b. To stigmatize, calumniate, throw dirt at.
1581. E. Campion, in Confer. (1584), A a ij. Neyther doeth Paul blotte the holy Ghost when he saide that he was rudis sermone.
1595. Shaks., John, II. i. 132. Theres a good mother, boy, that blots thy father!
1611. Bible, Pref., 2. He hath been blotted by some to bee an Epitomiste.
4. To make a blot over (writing) so as to make it illegible; to obliterate, efface. (Usually with out.)
1530. Palsgr., 458/2. Who hath blotted out this worde.
1542–3. Act 34 & 35 Hen. VIII., i. Persons, hauinge anie bibles … with anie suche annotacions or preambles shall … cutte out or blotte the same, in such wise, as they cannot be perceiued nor red.
1593. Shaks., Rich. II., I. iii. 202. My name be blotted from the booke of Life.
1709. Steele & Addison, Tatler, No. 75, ¶ 8. By Culture, as skilful Gardiners blot a Colour out of a Tulip that hurts its Beauty.
a. 1784. Johnson, in Boswell (1831), I. 307. He submitted that work to my castigation, and I remember I blotted a great many lines.
1859. Tennyson, Vivien, 328. I took his brush and blotted out the bird.
absol. 1737. Pope, Hor. Epist., II. i. 281. The last and greatest art, the art to blot.
5. fig. To efface, wipe out of existence, sight or memory; to annihilate, destroy. (Usually with out.)
1561. T. Norton, Calvin’s Inst., I. 19. Vtterly to blot and deface it out of mennes remembrance.
1611. Bible, Acts iii. 19. Repent yee therefore … that your sins may be blotted out.
1667. Milton, P. L., XI. 891. Not to blot out mankind.
1856. Froude, Hist. Eng. (1858), I. ii. 178. One, the tragedy of whose fate has blotted the remembrance of her sins.
1875. Bryce, Holy Rom. Emp., vii. (ed. 5), 113. As the Persian monarchy had been blotted out by Alexander.
b. To put out of sight, obscure, eclipse; also fig.
1592. Shaks., Ven. & Ad., 184. Like misty vapours when they blot the sky.
1718. Rowe, Lucan’s Pharsalia, I. 934 (1719), 30 (R.).
| The Moon, in all her Brother’s Beams array’d, | |
| Was blotted by the Earth’s approaching Shade. |
1780. Cowper, Table-T., 270. No shades of superstition blot the day.
1863. J. R. Wise, New Forest, 16. Neither sea nor sky are seen,—nothing but a dense haze blotting everything.
6. To dry with blotting-paper.
1854. W. Collins, Hide & Seek, I. 214 (Hoppe). Here Mr. Thorpe carefully blotted the first page of the letter.
