blob

See also: Blob and BLOB

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /blɒb/

  Rhymes: -ɒb

• IPA^(key): /blɑb/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Homophone: BLOB

Etymology 1

Possibly formed through mimesis, similarly to bleb and blubber.

Noun

blob (plural blobs)

1. A shapeless or amorphous mass; a vague shape or amount, especially of a liquid or semisolid substance; a clump, group or collection that lacks definite shape.
   • 1869: Norman Lockyer et al, Nature

     Only the outermost blob on either side in map 2 displays misalignment.

   • 1895: The Annual of the British School at Athens

     It was a colourful vase with red and white hoops on the lid, and red bands above and below the main frieze. These bands also carry a metope pattern in white of triple lines and blobs, which can just be distinguished on the photographs.

   • 1922, Virginia Woolf, chapter 1, in Jacob's Room:

     But there, on the very top, is a hollow full of water, with a sandy bottom; with a blob of jelly stuck to the side, and some mussels.

2. In astronomy, a large cloud of gas. In particular, an extended Lyman-Alpha blob is a huge body of gas that may be the precursor to a galaxy.
3. (dialect) A bubble; a bleb.
4. A small freshwater fish (); the miller's thumb.
5. The partially inflated air bag used in the sport of blobbing.
6. (sports, slang) A score of zero.
   • 1925, Punch (volume 168, page 561)

     A gentleman named W. Shakespeare scored a blob in the Worcestershire v. Lancashire match. We understand that he got out because the ball pitched on a "damned spot."

Derived terms

• bloblike

Translations

shapeless or amorphous mass

• Bulgarian: бучка (bg) (bučka), капчица (bg) (kapčica), топчица (bg) (topčica)
• Finnish: möykky (fi), kimpale (fi), klöntti (fi), kokkare (fi), klimppi (fi)
• French: pâte (fr), goutte (fr), tache (fr)
• Georgian: ბურთულა (burtula), ლაქა (laka)
• Greek: άμορφη μάζα f (ámorfi máza)
• Interlingue:
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Irish: daba m
• Japanese: ブロッブ (burobbu)
• Portuguese: amorfo (pt)
• Romanian: please add this translation if you can
• Russian: ком (ru) (kom)
• Spanish: bodoque m, mazacote (es) m, bloboque m, grumo (es) m
• Turkish: please add this translation if you can

See also

• cluster

Verb

1. (transitive) To drop in the form of a blob or blobs
   • 1917, Edgar Wallace, chapter 6, in The Keepers of the King's Peace‎^[2]:

     Bones put the tiny crimson speck between his slides, blobbed a drop of oil on top, and focused the microscope.

   • 1957, "War of Nerves," Time, 7 October, 1957, [3]

     […] a cross has been burned during the night on Wechsler's lawn and a painted KKK blobbed across one wall of his home.

2. (transitive) To drop a blob or blobs onto, cover with blobs.
   • 1941, Emily Carr, chapter 20, in Klee Wyck‎^[4]:

     She was beating something in a pail, beating it with her hands; her arms were blobbed with pink froth to the elbows.

   • 1959, "The Big Appel," Time, 7 December, 1959, [5]

     Asked to do a mural in the coffee room of the Municipal Museum, Appel responded by blobbing all four walls and the ceiling with brilliant colors […]

3. (intransitive) To fall in the form of a blob or blobs.
   • 1964, A. S. Byatt, The Shadow of the Sun, Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1991, Chapter Three, p. 47,

     Caroline began to separate eggs, cracking them into unbelievably even halves, sliding the gold, round and elastic, from shell to shell, whilst the white hung, heavy, translucent, in thick sheets, and blobbed suddenly into her basin.

   • 2013, Marcus Berkmann, "Blood and gore of the real 'who dunnits'," Review of Silent Witnesses by Nigel McCrery, Daily Mail, 22 August, 2013, [6]

     […] whether the blood has splashed, or blobbed, or trickled, can reveal whether the victim was killed here or moved afterwards.

4. (intransitive, slang) To relax idly and mindlessly; to veg out.

Translations

to relax mindlessly

• Maori: whakapahoho
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

Etymology 2

Noun

blob (plural blobs)

1. Alternative spelling of BLOB

Anagrams

• Lobb