Dictionary.com
definitions
  • synonyms

blotch

[bloch]
See more synonyms for blotch on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a large, irregular spot or blot.
  2. Plant Pathology.
    1. a diseased, discolored spot or area on a plant.
    2. a disease so characterized, usually accompanied by cankers and lesions.
  3. a skin eruption; blemish.
Show More
verb (used with object)
  1. to mark with blotches; blot, spot, or blur: The floor of the forest was blotched with cool, dark moss.
Show More
adjective
  1. Textiles. of or relating to blotch printing, or to the colored ground produced by this process.
Show More

Origin of blotch

1595–1605; perhaps blend of blot1 + botch2

Synonyms

See more synonyms for blotch on Thesaurus.com
1. splotch, mark, blemish, stain.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for blotch

Historical Examples

  • The lighthouse was a white dot and the fish shanties a blotch of brown.

    Keziah Coffin

    Joseph C. Lincoln

  • The month was April, and the day was blithe, with no blotch in the sky.

    The Jucklins

    Opie Read

  • There was indeed a blotch on one of the negatives, which I was assured was a spirit.

    Mystic London:

    Charles Maurice Davies

  • With all the writer's care, however, he had not been able to avoid a blotch.

  • Mr. Blotch remained in the engine room throughout the journey.

    Local Color

    Irvin S. Cobb

British Dictionary definitions for blotch

blotch

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

Word Origin

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

Word Origin and History for blotch

n.

c.1600, perhaps a blend of blot and botch or patch.

Show More
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
blotch in Science

blotch

[blŏch]
  1. Any of several plant diseases caused by fungi and resulting in brown or black dead areas on leaves or fruit.
Show More
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.