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

However, New York corrections officials put a lockdown in place at its facilities for April 8, the day the eclipse will pass over a long stretch of North America, including New York, as the moon blots out the sun. —Eric Lagatta, USA TODAY, 3 Apr. 2024

Video posted by the principal of Odyssey Charter School’s south campus in Altadena shows flames still smoldering in the buildings as smoke rises from the playground, blotting out the sky. —Anna North, Vox, 7 Dec. 2018

In private, though, his bitterness over the commission dispute was starting to blot out his faith in Seal Team Six. —Brendan I. Koerner, WIRED, 13 Jan. 2025

Tennesseans were able to nerd out Monday afternoon as astronomy, cosmology, meteorology and a little theology collided in the heavens over North America, casting a black shadow that, in some places, blotted out the midday sun. —Keith Sharon, The Tennessean, 8 Apr. 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