maculate
Americanadjective
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spotted; stained.
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Archaic. defiled; impure.
verb (used with object)
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to mark with a spot or spots; stain.
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to sully or pollute.
verb
adjective
Etymology
Origin of maculate
1375–1425; late Middle English < Latin maculātus (past participle of maculāre to spot, stain). See macula, -ate 1
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.
Among the robin's maculate cousins, "the reddish tail is the hermit thrush's mark."
From Time Magazine Archive
But his limitations were a virtue because his target was so big -- and so maculate.
From Time Magazine Archive
Of this half-hundred a few are used in Shakespeare, but not at present, as verbs; thus, to maculate, to miracle, to mud, to mist, to mischief, to moral—also merchandized and musicked.
From Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. XVI., December, 1880. by Various
V. be variegated &c. adj.; variegate, stripe, streak, checker, chequer; bespeckle†, speckle; besprinkle, sprinkle; stipple, maculate, dot, bespot†; tattoo, inlay, damascene; embroider, braid, quilt.
From Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases by Roget, Peter Mark
But they had no history to be written; and were too closely maculate to be portrayed;—white ground in most places altogether obscured.
From Ariadne Florentina Six Lectures on Wood and Metal Engraving by Ruskin, John
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.
