noun · verb · 11 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
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Received-Pronunciation:/blɒtʃ/
General-American:/blɑt͡ʃ/
Southern-England:Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
rhymes with -ɒtʃ
CMU ARPABET:B L AA1 T CH
Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
1
noun
Meaning 1
An uneven patch of color or discoloration.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Examples
1711, Joseph Addison and Richard Steele, The Spectator, London: J. & R. Tonson, 12th edition, Volume I, No. 16, p. 68, [...] in healing those Blotches and Tumours which break out in the body [...]
1921, Wallace Stevens, Sur Ma Guzzla Gracile, Palace of the Babies, in Poetry, Volume 19, No. 1, The disbeliever walked the moonlit place, Outside the gates of hammered serafin, Observing the moon-blotches on the walls.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
2
noun
Meaning 2
An irregularly shaped area.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
3
noun
Meaning 3
Imperfection; blemish on one’s reputation, stain.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: figuratively
Examples
1921, Warren G. Harding, Inaugural address, in Inaugural Addresses of the Presidents of the United States: from George Washington to Barack Obama, Washington, D.C.: U.S. G.P.O., 1989, There never can be equality of rewards or possessions so long as the human plan contains varied talents and differing degrees of industry and thrift, but ours ought to be a country free from the great blotches of distressed poverty.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
4
noun
Meaning 4
Any of various crop diseases that cause the plant to form spots.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
5
noun
Meaning 5
A bright or dark spot on old film caused by dirt and loss of the gelatin covering the film, due to age and poor film quality.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
6
noun
Meaning 6
A dark spot on the skin; a pustule.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
7
noun
Meaning 7
Blotting paper.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: slang
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
8
verb
Meaning 8
To mark with blotches.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: transitive
Examples
1770, Arthur Young, A Six Months Tour through the North of England, London: W. Strahan, Volume 2, p. 258, Upon the whole, the spirit and relief of the figures, with the strength of the colouring, render it a most noble picture; and it is not done in the coarse blotching stile, so common to the pieces which pass under the name of Bassan.
1918, D. H. Lawrence, Parliament Hill in the Evening in New Poems, The houses fade in a melt of mist Blotching the thick, soiled air With reddish places that still resist The Night’s slow care.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
9
verb
Meaning 9
To develop blotches, to become blotchy.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: intransitive
Examples
1878, Arthur Morecamp (pseudonym of Thomas Pilgrim), Live Boys; or, Charley and Nasho in Texas, Boston: Lee & Shepard, Chapter 17, p. 166, [...] when a man is going to drive cattle out of the county he has to put a road-brand on them [...] It is generally made of letters or figures, or something that won’t cross lines, because where they cross they are apt to blotch and then it’s hard to tell what the brand is and who the animal belongs to.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
10
noun
Meaning 10
an irregularly shaped spot
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
