blotch

/blɑtʃ/

Other forms: blotches; blotched; blotching

A blotch is an uneven spot or blemish, like the itchy blotches you get all over your arms after tangling with the poison ivy in your back yard.

Etymologists guess that blotch comes from blot, "spot or stain," influenced by patch — so you can think of a blotch as a patchy stain. The word is frequently used to describe skin that's discolored, like the blotches you get on your cheeks after crying, or the painful blotch on your back where you forgot to apply sunblock. Use it as a verb, too: "The ketchup squirted from his hamburger and blotched his new white shirt."

Definitions of blotch

1. noun

   an irregularly shaped spot
   synonyms: splodge, splotch

   type of:

   blot, daub, slur, smear, smirch, smudge, spot

   a blemish made by dirt
2. verb

   mark with spots or blotches of different color or shades of color as if stained
   synonyms: mottle, streak

   type of:

   color, color in, colorise, colorize, colour, colour in, colourise, colourize

   add color to