maculate
Americanadjective
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spotted; stained.
-
Archaic. defiled; impure.
verb (used with object)
-
to mark with a spot or spots; stain.
-
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
Explanation
If your little sister has a maculate appearance, she either needs a good wipe with a damp towel or you should take her to the doctor straight away. A fairly technical word little used now, maculate means "spotted" or "blotchy." There's another meaning for maculate, that of "having a blemished or impure moral character." Now your little sister doesn't have that, does she? You can also maculate something by either physically or metaphorically polluting it — like a river or a relationship.
Vocabulary lists containing maculate
100 SAT Words Beginning with "M"
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Love's Labour's Lost
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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:
But his limitations were a virtue because his target was so big -- and so maculate.
From Time Magazine Archive
Among the robin's maculate cousins, "the reddish tail is the hermit thrush's mark."
From Time Magazine Archive
The room was long, dark, narrow, slovenly, spaced with tables on which were maculate cloths and lamps with faded shades.
From The Paliser case by Saltus, Edgar
His wasted palms rested on knees that resembled bones draped with maculate clothing; his sere head fell forward.
From The Happy End by Hergesheimer, Joseph
Colette's foul walls and maculate table-linen, and even down to Colette's villainous casters, seemed like objects in a nightmare.
From Tales and Fantasies by Stevenson, Robert Louis
That done, he returned, happily unrecognized, rumpled & maculated, to the Morrow dinner.
From Time Magazine Archive
A few drops of lukewarm water maculated the sidewalks with spots as big as dollars.
From Joan Thursday by Vance, Louis Joseph
Blake saw the crimson that dripped on her matting slippers and maculated the cream white of the mandarin coat.
From Never-Fail Blake by Stringer, Arthur
This was a particularly repulsive specimen of its breed; grimy with hardened dust and gummed oil, maculated with yellow-surface-rust, the brasswork green with corrosion.
From Murder in the Gunroom by Piper, H. Beam
Sidewalks began to be maculated with spreading areas of dryness, but the roadway was still wet and shining, the wide black mirror of a myriad lights.
From The False Faces Further Adventures from the History of the Lone Wolf by Vance, Louis Joseph
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.
