blot out

verb

blotted out; blotting out; blots out

transitive verb

1

: to make obscure, insignificant, or inconsequential

2

: wipe out, destroy

Synonyms

• abolish
• annihilate
• black out
• cancel
• clean (up)
• efface
• eradicate
• erase
• expunge
• exterminate
• extirpate
• liquidate
• obliterate
• root (out)
• rub out
• snuff (out)
• stamp (out)
• sweep (away)
• wipe out

Examples of blot out in a Sentence

blotted out all evidence of tampering with the explosive device

bushes blotted out the shed from our view

Recent Examples on the Web

There are tens of millions of people who live along a narrow stretch from Mexico’s Pacific Coast to eastern Canada, otherwise known as the path of totality, where locals and travelers gazed skyward to see the moon fully blot out the sun. —Anna Furman, Los Angeles Times, 9 Dec. 2024

The wait is long over until eclipse viewers have their only chance until 2044 to witness totality, the event in which the moon will completely block the sun's disc, blotting out the light and casting the world below in its uncanny shadow. —American-Statesman Staff, Austin American-Statesman, 8 Apr. 2024

Alternatively, some of you are using coping mechanisms — not reading the paper or listening to the news, or giving up on politics, or relying on music or poetry or the beauty of nature to blot out what is occurring. —Robert B. Reich, Hartford Courant, 26 Nov. 2024

In a later bid to blot out those memories, the Yankees leveled that stadium and built another one across the street. —Christopher Reynolds, Los Angeles Times, 15 Oct. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1549, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Kids Definition

blot out

verb

1

: to make unimportant

2

: to make hard to see or invisible : hide

3

: destroy sense 1, kill