Spot (?), a. Lit., being on
the spot, or
place; hence (Com.), on hand for immediate delivery after sale; -- said of commodities; as, spot wheat.
Spot , v. i. To become stained with
spots.
Spot , v. t. [imp. & p. p. Spotted; p. pr. & vb.
n. 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
garnment; 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.
Sir P. Sidney. If ever I shall
close these eyes but once,
May I live spotted for my perjury.
Beau. & Fl. To spot timber, to cut or chip it, in preparation for
hewing.
Spot (?), n. [Cf. Scot. & D. spat, Dan. spette, Sw.
spott spittle, slaver; from the root of E. spit. See Spit to eject from
the mouth, and cf. Spatter.]
1. A mark on a substance or body made by
foreign matter; a blot; a place discolored.
Out, damned
spot! Out, I say!
Shak.
2. A stain on character or reputation; something
that soils purity; disgrace; reproach; fault; blemish.
Yet Chloe, sure,
was formed without a spot.
Pope. 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." Otway.
That spot to which I point is Paradise.
Milton.
"A jolly place," said he, "in times of
old!
But something ails it now: the spot is cursed."
Wordsworth.
5. (Zoöl.) A variety of
the common domestic pigeon, so called from a
spot on its
head just above its beak.
6. (Zoöl.) (a) A sciænoid 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
(Zoöl.), any butterfly of the family Melitæidæ 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 ilumination; -- called
also spotted lens. -- Spot rump (Zoöl.), the Hudsonian godwit (Limosa hæmastica). -- Spots on the sun.
(Astron.) See Sun
spot, ander Sun.
-- On, or Upon, the spot, immediately;
before moving; without changing place.
It
was determined upon the spot.
Swift. Syn. -- Stain; flaw; speck; blot; disgrace; reproach; fault; blemish; place; site; locality.
Hear it pronounced