blotter
- a piece of blotting paper used to absorb excess ink, to protect a desk top, etc.
- a book in which transactions or events, as sales or arrests, are recorded as they occur: a police blotter.
- Machinery. a soft washer of blotting paper or felt for cushioning a brittle object against shock or pressure or for increasing the friction or contact area between two surfaces.
Origin of blotter
Related Words for blotter
pad, binder, diary, journal, daybook, log, workbook, blotter, hallucinogen, candy, dot, peyoteExamples from the Web for blotter
Historical Examples of blotter
Then he let the pen fall on the blotter, for he had remembered the day.
Stories of a Western TownOctave Thanet
Gertrude glanced up at him, then at her father, and then at the blotter on the desk.
Cap'n Dan's DaughterJoseph C. Lincoln
She took up a pen at this, and opened the cash-book upon the blotter.
The Market-PlaceHarold Frederic
What I really wanted from her was an inspection of the book and blotter, and a deduction from it.
The Million-Dollar SuitcaseAlice MacGowan
A blotter which has one end in water soon becomes wet all over.
Common ScienceCarleton W. Washburne
blotter
- something used to absorb excess ink or other liquid, esp a sheet of blotting paper with a firm backing
- US a daily record of events, such as arrests, in a police station (esp in the phrase police blotter)
Word Origin and History for blotter
1590s, "thing for drying wet spots," agent noun from blot (v.). Meaning "bad writer" is from c.1600. Sense of "day book" is from 1670s, and the word was applied early 19c. to rough drafts, scrap books, notebooks, and draft account books. Hence the police jargon sense "arrest record sheet," recorded from 1887.