divot
Americannoun
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Golf. a piece of turf gouged out with a club in making a stroke.
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Scot. a piece of turf.
noun
Etymology
Origin of divot
1530–40; originally Scots, earlier deva ( i ) t, diffat, duvat, of obscure origin
Explanation
A divot is a little chunk of grass or turf that gets dug out of the ground. Playing golf creates many divots. Have you ever seen a lawn that is perfectly maintained and smooth? That's a piece of ground without any divots. A divot is a little piece of the earth that flies up when something sharp hits it, like an animal's sharp hooves. The chunk of earth is a divot, and the cavity left behind is also called a divot. The cleats of football players and the powerful swings of golf players both result in divots.
Vocabulary lists containing divot
The Book of Unknown Americans
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Early Departures
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Goodbye Stranger
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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.
His patient Sheena Rao, a 44-year-old celebrity booker, paid $1,000 for injections to fill in a divot in the bridge of her nose and to give its tip a more upturned appearance.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026
But Farke could not definitively say if there was a rogue divot on the pitch which had cost his injury-hit side two crucial points at the Stadium of Light after an impressive display.
From BBC ● Oct. 4, 2024
The rifle’s extendable stock’s point—that is, the end of the butt nestled “high and tight” into the divot, or pocket, of the shoulder—provided a sturdy point of pressure.
From Slate ● Jul. 17, 2024
“It didn’t move, it didn’t roll, it didn’t bounce. It just made a tiny little divot in the Utah soil.”
From Washington Times ● Sep. 24, 2023
She climbed—hand then foot, then hand again, seeking the next small crack, the next divot in the soot-slick walls.
From "Six of Crows" by Leigh Bardugo
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
