blemish
Americanverb (used with object)
-
blemishes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
blemished,
past participle, past
-
blemishing
present participle
noun
verb
Synonym Usage
See defect.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
blemishsimple
-
blemishessimple
-
have blemishedperfect
-
has blemishedperfect
-
am blemishingprogressive
-
are blemishingprogressive
-
is blemishingprogressive
-
have been blemishingperfect progressive
-
has been blemishingperfect progressive
Past
-
blemishedsimple
-
had blemishedperfect
-
was blemishingprogressive
-
were blemishingprogressive
-
had been blemishingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of blemish
1275–1325; Middle English (v.) < Anglo-French, Middle French blemiss-, long stem of ble ( s ) mir to make livid, perhaps < Old Low Franconian *blesmjan; see blaze 2
Explanation
A blemish is a small flaw. If you borrow your brother's brand new bicycle, you'd better be careful — what might seem like the tiniest blemish to you might be a horribly ruined paint job to him. The classic example of a blemish is a pimple or other mark on your skin, but you can call any small defect a blemish — like a worm hole in an apple or a scrape on the side of your car. A flaw or fault in your personality or morals can also be called a blemish. You might say that the one time your dog accidentally nipped you is the only blemish on his reputation as a sweet, gentle pet.
Vocabulary lists containing blemish
"The Landlady" by Roald Dahl
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List 6
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100 SAT Words Beginning with "B"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Yet the single blemish on his resume is eternally painful to Dodgers fans.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 1, 2026
And in a culture so hellbent on idol worship and exhausting discourse, where every blemish is smoothed out or screamed at, “SNL” still offers us something scrappy and unvarnished.
From Salon ● Apr. 19, 2026
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index was a blemish, closing the day 1.8% lower.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 24, 2026
Sagimet’s denifanstat showed increased blemish clearance in young adults after a year, with a 20% reduction in pimples after three months compared with a placebo in a China study.
From Barron's ● Feb. 3, 2026
Colonel Cathcart was overjoyed, for he was relieved of the embarrassing commitment to bomb Bologna without blemish to the reputation for valor he had earned by volunteering his men to do it.
From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller
Brilliant as Wales were against North Macedonia, the performance was not without its blemishes.
From BBC ● Mar. 26, 2026
Coating cools while dripping from an arm, smiles askew send mixed signals, smeared eyes like they’d been up late partying with the tarts, blemishes, cracked sugary skin.
From Salon ● Feb. 5, 2026
There were some blemishes on an otherwise solid print.
From Barron's ● Oct. 30, 2025
His only blemishes in that time were repeated disappointments in the playoffs.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 1, 2025
If I wanted to work on a top-secret space project someday, I couldn’t have any blemishes on my record.
From "The Lions of Little Rock" by Kristin Levine
The city of about 35,000 has always considered itself an island of Old California, even as clogged roads and McMansions blemished the once-pristine hills.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 4, 2026
That record is blemished by his removal from an assignment based on his Francis-like tendencies, which may have had a hand in his failure to rise above the lowest of the U.S.
From Slate ● Apr. 13, 2026
We’ve developed creative ways to mitigate waste, finding secondary uses for produce that’s past its prime—whether bent, broken, bruised, blemished, or overly ripe.
From Salon ● Aug. 12, 2024
Overseas, the record is more blemished, with nearly 1,600 deaths from 27 scheduled passenger jet accidents in the past decade.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 1, 2022
Its face is full and round, skin blemished with craters, and white as milk.
From "I Can Make This Promise" by Christine Day
The ruckus is blemishing what had been a successful period for Ukraine’s military, which has stopped some Russian advances and even regained a bit of territory over recent months.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 19, 2026
Senate when she died, and questions about her mental capacity shadowed her final years in office, blemishing her reputation and forcing her to repeatedly fend off calls to resign.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 29, 2023
Meanwhile, Winston passed for and NFL-leading 5,109 yards and 33 passing touchdowns with Tampa Bay in 2019 — albeit with 30 interceptions blemishing those otherwise exceptional numbers.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 29, 2021
But the defence, along with the team as a whole, improved markedly after half-time and never looked like blemishing only their second clean sheet of the season after the break.
From BBC ● Oct. 1, 2016
O Saladyne, the faults of thy youth, as they were fond, so were they foul, and not only discovering little nurture, but blemishing the excellence of nature.
From Rosalynde or, Euphues' Golden Legacy by Edward Chauncey Baldwin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
