dead-spot

dead spot

noun
1.
Also called blind spot. an area in which radio or cell phone signals are weak and their reception poor.
2.
blind spot ( def 4 ).
Dictionary.com Unabridged

blind spot

noun
1.
Anatomy. a small area on the retina that is insensitive to light due to the interruption, where the optic nerve joins the retina, of the normal pattern of light-sensitive rods and cones. See diag. under eye.
2.
an area or subject about which one is uninformed, prejudiced, or unappreciative: I confess that operettas are my blind spot.
3.
dead spot ( def 1 ).
4.
Also called dead spot. any part of an auditorium, arena, or the like, in which a person is unable to see or hear satisfactorily.
5.
an area to the side and slightly behind a driver's field of vision that is not reflected in the vehicle's rearview mirror.
Origin:
1860–65

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
Cite This Source Link To dead-spot
00:10
Dead-spot is always a great word to know.
So is flibbertigibbet. Does it mean:
a fool or simpleton; ninny.
a chattering or flighty, light-headed person.
LEARN MORE UNUSUAL WORDS WITH WORD DYNAMO...
Collins
World English Dictionary
blind spot
 
—n
1.  See optic disc a small oval-shaped area of the retina in which vision is not experienced. It marks the nonphotosensitive site of entrance into the eyeball of the optic nerve
2.  a place or area, as in an auditorium or part of a road, where vision is completely or partially obscured or hearing is difficult or impossible
3.  a subject about which a person is ignorant or prejudiced, or an occupation in which he or she is inefficient
4.  a location within the normal range of a radio transmitter with weak reception

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source
Etymonline
Word Origin & History

blind spot
1864, "spot within one's range of vision where yet one cannot see." Of flaws in the eye, from 1872; figurative sense in use by 1907.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Cite This Source
American Heritage
Medical Dictionary

blind spot n.

  1. See optic disk.

  2. The area of blindness in the visual field corresponding to the optic disk. Also called physiologic scotoma, punctum cecum.

  3. An area or facet of one's personality of which one remains ignorant or fails to gain understanding. Also called mental scotoma, scotoma.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Cite This Source
American Heritage
Science Dictionary
blind spot   (blīnd)  Pronunciation Key 
The small region of the retina where fibers of the optic nerve emerge from the eyeball. The blind spot has no rods or cones, so no light or visual image can be transmitted.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
American Heritage
Cultural Dictionary

blind spot definition


A small region in the visual field (the area scanned by the eye) that cannot be seen. The blind spot corresponds to an area in the eye where the optic nerve enters the retina.

Note: In a general sense, the term is used to refer to an inability to see things that might be obvious to another observer: “He has a blind spot as far as his daughter's behavior is concerned.”
The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
Matching Quote
"According to the record of an old inhabitant of Tyngsborough, now dead, whose farm we were now gliding past, one of the greatest freshets on this river took place in October, 1785, and its height was marked by a nail driven into an apple tree behind his house....
The revolutions of nature tell as fine tales, and make as interesting revelations, on this river's banks, as on the Euphrates or the Nile. This apple tree, which stands within a few rods of the river, is called "Elisha's apple tree," from a friendly Indian who was anciently in the service of Jonathan Tyng, and, with one other man, was killed here by his own race in one of the Indian wars,—the particulars of which affair were told us on the spot. He was buried close by, no one knew exactly where, but in the flood of 1785, so great a weight of water standing over the grave caused the earth to settle where it had once been disturbed, and when the flood went down, a sunken spot, exactly of the form and size of the grave, revealed its locality; but this was now lost again, and no future flood can detect it; yet, no doubt, nature will know how to point it out in due time, if it be necessary, by methods yet more searching and unexpected. Thus there is not only the crisis when the spirit ceases to inspire and expand the body, marked by a fresh mound in the churchyard, but there is also a crisis when the body ceases to take up room as such in nature, marked by a fainter depression in the earth."
Partners:WordBloglinesCitysearchThe Daily BeastAsk AnswersAsk KidsLife123SendoriHome Advisor
Copyright © 2013 Dictionary.com, LLC. All rights reserved.
About PRIVACY POLICY Terms API Careers Advertise with Us Contact Us Suggest a Word Help
  • Please Login or Sign Up to use the Recent Searches feature
FAVORITES
RECENT