blotch

[ bloch ]
See synonyms for: blotchblotchedblotching on Thesaurus.com

noun
  1. a large, irregular spot or blot.

  2. Plant Pathology.

    • a diseased, discolored spot or area on a plant.

    • a disease so characterized, usually accompanied by cankers and lesions.

  1. a skin eruption; blemish.

verb (used with object)
  1. to mark with blotches; blot, spot, or blur: The floor of the forest was blotched with cool, dark moss.

adjective
  1. Textiles. of or relating to blotch printing, or to the colored ground produced by this process.

Origin of blotch

1
1595–1605; perhaps blend of blot1 + botch2

Other words for blotch

Words Nearby blotch

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use blotch in a sentence

  • It came out a scraggy blotch of white paint, with its black eyes glaring like two great glass beads!

    Martin Rattler | R.M. Ballantyne
  • Looking round he saw the pale blotch of her face down in the darkness under the hanging tree.

    Sons and Lovers | David Herbert Lawrence
  • The furnaces flared in a red blotch over Bulwell; the black clouds were like a low ceiling.

    Sons and Lovers | David Herbert Lawrence

British Dictionary definitions for blotch

blotch

/ (blɒtʃ) /


noun
  1. an irregular spot or discoloration, esp a dark and relatively large one such as an ink stain

verb
  1. to become or cause to become marked by such discoloration

  2. (intr) (of a pen or ink) to write or flow unevenly in blotches

Origin of blotch

1
C17: probably from botch, influenced by blot 1

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for blotch

blotch

[ blŏch ]


  1. Any of several plant diseases caused by fungi and resulting in brown or black dead areas on leaves or fruit.

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.