blob

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a small rounded or shapeless amount of a thick liquid or soft substance

   She squeezed a blob of glue onto the loose corner of the label.

2. 2
   noun

   an indistinct, shapeless area or form, especially one seen at a distance or in an image

   Through the fog, the approaching boat appeared as a dark blob.

The noun, recorded in the eighteenth century for a drop or globule, developed from an older verb meaning "to mark with blobs." Its deeper origin is uncertain but may be imitative and related to bubble or bleb. The sense of an indistinct shape extends the idea of a rounded, poorly defined mass.

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