Dictionary

blob en · NOUN · etymology 1

Pronunciation

• (US) audio
• /blɒb/ (UK)
• /blɑb/ (US)

Etymology

From Middle English *blob (“attested in blobby”). Possibly onomatopoeic, similarly to bleb and blubber.

Meanings

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.
   • Only the outermost blob on either side in map 2 displays misalignment. 1869, Norman Lockyer et al., Nature:
   • 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. 1895, The Annual of the British School at Athens:
   • 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. 1922, Virginia Woolf, chapter 1, in Jacob's Room:
2. A large cloud of gas.
3. (abbreviation, alt-of, ellipsis) A large cloud of gas. ▸ Ellipsis of extended Lyman-Alpha blob, a huge body of gas that may be the precursor to a galaxy.
   alt of extended Lyman-Alpha blob
4. (dialectal) A bubble; a bleb.
5. A small freshwater fish (Cottus bairdii); the miller's thumb.
6. The partially inflated air bag used in the sport of blobbing.
7. (slang) A score of zero.
   • 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." 1925, Punch, volume 168, page 561:
8. (as the blob) Physarum polycephalum, a bright yellow acellular slime mold known for solving puzzles, making decisions, etc. without a nervous system.
9. An extremely morbidly obese person, to the point of most of their body being composed of fat and nothing else.

Forms

Deriveds

mareblob · blobplot · glob · blobby · blob-wore · devicetree blob · horse blob · bloblike · blob of death · blobocracy · cold blob · moeblob · binary blob · on the blob · blobject · blobitecture · blobular · water-blob · blob-like · blobfish

Relateds

cluster

Translations (26)

ru ком (shapeless or amorphous mass) · ja ブロッブ (shapeless or amorphous mass) · es bloboque (shapeless or amorphous mass) · fi kimpale (shapeless or amorphous mass) · fi kokkare (shapeless or amorphous mass) · ka ლაქა (shapeless or amorphous mass) · bg бучка (shapeless or amorphous mass) · fi klöntti (shapeless or amorphous mass) · bg капчица (shapeless or amorphous mass) · ga daba (shapeless or amorphous mass) · fr tache (shapeless or amorphous mass) · es bodoque (shapeless or amorphous mass) · el άμορφη μάζα (shapeless or amorphous mass) · de Klümpchen (shapeless or amorphous mass) · pt amorfo (shapeless or amorphous mass) · de Klecks (shapeless or amorphous mass) · es grumo (shapeless or amorphous mass) · it grumo (shapeless or amorphous mass) · fi möykky (shapeless or amorphous mass) · de Klumpen (shapeless or amorphous mass) · fr pâte (shapeless or amorphous mass) · ka ბურთულა (shapeless or amorphous mass) · bg топчица (shapeless or amorphous mass) · fi klimppi (shapeless or amorphous mass) · fr goutte (shapeless or amorphous mass) · es mazacote (shapeless or amorphous mass)

blob en · VERB · etymology 1

Pronunciation

• (US) audio
• /blɒb/ (UK)
• /blɑb/ (US)

Etymology

From Middle English *blob (“attested in blobby”). Possibly onomatopoeic, similarly to bleb and blubber.

Meanings

1. (transitive) To splash in the form of a blob or blobs.
   • […] a cross has been burned during the night on Wechsler's lawn and a painted KKK blobbed across one wall of his home. 1957 October 7, “War of Nerves”, in Time:
   • Bones put the tiny crimson speck between his slides, blobbed a drop of oil on top, and focused the microscope. 1917, Edgar Wallace, chapter 6, in The Keepers of the King's Peace:
2. (transitive) To drop a blob or blobs onto; to cover with blobs.
   • She was beating something in a pail, beating it with her hands; her arms were blobbed with pink froth to the elbows. 1941, Emily Carr, chapter 20, in Klee Wyck:
   • 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 […] 1959 December 7, “The Big Appel”, in Time, archived from the original on 27 Aug 2013:
3. (intransitive) To fall in the form of a blob or blobs.
   • 2013, Marcus Berkmann, "Blood and gore of the real 'who dunnits'," Review of Silent Witnesses by Nigel McCrery, Daily Mail, 22 August, 2013, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/books/article-2400118/Blood-gore-real-dunnits-SILENT-WITNESSES-BY-NIGEL-MCCRERY.html […] whether the blood has splashed, or blobbed, or trickled, can reveal whether the victim was killed here or moved afterwards.
   • 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. 1964, A. S. Byatt, chapter 3, in The Shadow of the Sun, Harcourt, Brace & Co., published 1991, page 47:
4. (UK, colloquial, intransitive) To spill sauce on oneself while eating.
5. (intransitive, slang) To relax idly and mindlessly; to veg out.
6. (intransitive) To catch eels by means of worms strung on a thread.
   • […] where he had surreptitiously tickled small trout, or openly "blobbed" for eels with worms threaded on to darning wool when the rains came, […] 1937, The Argosy, volume 21, numbers 129-133, page 21:

Forms

Deriveds

blob out · blob off

Synonyms

bob

Translations (2)

ru обмякнуть (to relax mindlessly) · mi whakapahoho (to relax mindlessly)

blob en · NOUN · etymology 2

Pronunciation

• (US) audio
• /blɒb/ (UK)
• /blɑb/ (US)

Meanings

1. (alt-of, alternative) Alternative spelling of BLOB.
   alt of BLOB

Forms