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Spot   /spɑt/   Listen
noun
Spot  n.  
1.
A mark on a substance or body made by foreign matter; a blot; a place discolored. "Out, damned spot! Out, I say!"
2.
A stain on character or reputation; something that soils purity; disgrace; reproach; fault; blemish. "Yet Chloe, sure, was formed without a spot."
3.
A small part of a different color from the main part, or from the ground upon which it is; as, the spots of a leopard; the spots on a playing card.
4.
A small extent of space; a place; any particular place. "Fixed to one spot." "That spot to which I point is Paradise." ""A jolly place," said he, "in times of old! But something ails it now: the spot is cursed.""
5.
(Zool.) A variety of the common domestic pigeon, so called from a spot on its head just above its beak.
6.
(Zool.)
(a)
A sciaenoid food fish (Liostomus xanthurus) of the Atlantic coast of the United States. It has a black spot behind the shoulders and fifteen oblique dark bars on the sides. Called also goody, Lafayette, masooka, and old wife.
(b)
The southern redfish, or red horse, which has a spot on each side at the base of the tail. See Redfish.
7.
pl. Commodities, as merchandise and cotton, sold for immediate delivery. (Broker's Cant)
Crescent spot (Zool.), any butterfly of the family Melitaeidae having crescent-shaped white spots along the margins of the red or brown wings.
Spot lens (Microscopy), a condensing lens in which the light is confined to an annular pencil by means of a small, round diaphragm (the spot), and used in dark-field illumination; called also spotted lens.
Spot rump (Zool.), the Hudsonian godwit (Limosa haemastica).
Spots on the sun. (Astron.) See Sun spot, ander Sun.
On the spot, or Upon the spot, immediately; before moving; without changing place; as, he made his decision on the spot. "It was determined upon the spot."
Synonyms: Stain; flaw; speck; blot; disgrace; reproach; fault; blemish; place; site; locality.


verb
Spot  v. t.  (past & past part. spotted; pres. part. spotting)  
1.
To make visible marks upon with some foreign matter; to discolor in or with spots; to stain; to cover with spots or figures; as, to spot a garment; to spot paper.
2.
To mark or note so as to insure recognition; to recognize; to detect; as, to spot a criminal. (Cant)
3.
To stain; to blemish; to taint; to disgrace; to tarnish, as reputation; to asperse. "My virgin life no spotted thoughts shall stain." "If ever I shall close these eyes but once, May I live spotted for my perjury."
To spot timber, to cut or chip it, in preparation for hewing.


Spot  v. i.  To become stained with spots.


adjective
Spot  adj.  Lit., being on the spot, or place; hence (Com.), On hand for immediate delivery after sale; said of commodities; as, spot wheat.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Spot" Quotes from Famous Books



... Penloe appeared, and taking Stella's valise they both walked up to the cabin. Stella was perfectly charmed with the beautiful spot where the cabin was located. Some large pines were in front of the cabin and some very handsome redwoods a few rods in the rear. A sparkling, rippling brook flowed near the cabin, singing merrily ...
— A California Girl • Edward Eldridge
... volunteer, an adventurer, to Boston, as possibly many of you whom I now see before me may consider yourselves as having come to Cincinnati. I was without support of any kind. I may say I was a stranger in that city, although almost a native of that spot. I say I can hardly call it practice, because for the space of one year from that time it would be difficult for me to name any practice which I had to do. For two years, indeed, I can recall nothing in which I was engaged that may ...
— Memoir of the Life of John Quincy Adams. • Josiah Quincy
... not for little black spots[8] that are apt to break out in their faces, and sometimes rise in very odd figures. I have observed that those little blemishes wear off very soon; but when they disappear in one part of the face, they are very apt to break out in another, insomuch that I have seen a spot upon the forehead in the afternoon, which was upon ...
— The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, D. D., Volume IX; • Jonathan Swift
... short procession over these then naked fields; he crosses yonder stream on a fallen tree; he ascends to the top of this eminence, whose original oaks of the forest stand as thick around him as if the spot had been devoted to Druidical worship, and here he performs the appointed ...
— Washington's Birthday • Various
... foe.— The season had returned when soft winds blow, The season friendly to young lovers coy, Which bids them clothe their joy In divers garbs and many a masked disguise. Then I to track the game 'neath April skies Went forth in raiment strange apparelled, And by kind fate was led Unto the spot where stayed my soul's desire. The beauteous nymph who feeds my soul with fire, I found in gentle, pure, and prudent mood, In graceful attitude, Loving and courteous, holy, wise, benign. So sweet, so tender was her face divine, So gladsome, that in those celestial eyes Shone perfect paradise, ...
— Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece, Complete - Series I, II, and III • John Symonds


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