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

For a few precious minutes during a solar eclipse, the Moon blots out the disk of the Sun, revealing its wispy outer atmosphere, or corona. —Byhannah Richter, science.org, 31 Oct. 2024

Big enough to credibly watch The Good Place, small enough to talk on without blotting out the sun. —David Pierce, WIRED, 3 Nov. 2017

As generative AI tools grow more commonplace, platforms that give up on trying to blot out bots will incubate an online world in which work created by humans becomes increasingly harder to find on platforms swamped by AI. —Kate Knibbs, WIRED, 28 Oct. 2024

Green might feel the air swirl around him or the force of a gust pushing dark clouds into the sky, blotting out the blue. —Scottie Andrew, CNN, 26 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