blob

plural blobs

1. A shapeless or amorphous mass; a vague shape or amount, especially of a liquid or semisolid substance; a clump, group or collection that lacks definite shape.

   Only the outermost blob on either side in map 2 displays misalignment.

   1869, Norman Lockyer et al., Nature

   2 more examples

   It was a colourful vase with red and white hoops on the lid, and red bands above and below the main frieze. These bands also carry a metope pattern in white of triple lines and blobs, which can just be distinguished on the photographs.

   1895, The Annual of the British School at Athens

   But there, on the very top, is a hollow full of water, with a sandy bottom; with a blob of jelly stuck to the side, and some mussels.

   1922, Virginia Woolf, chapter 1, in Jacob's Room

2. hobbiesThe partially inflated air bag used as a trampoline in the sport of blobbing.

   Synonyms: water trampoline

3. slanghobbiesA score of zero.

   A gentleman named W. Shakespeare scored a blob in the Worcestershire v. Lancashire match. We understand that he got out because the ball pitched on a "damned spot."

   1925, Punch, volume 168, page 561

4. A small freshwater fish, of the species Cottus bairdii; the miller's thumb.
5. with definite articleA bright yellow acellular slime mold, of the species Physarum polycephalum.
6. astronomyA large cloud of gas.
   1. abbreviationellipsisastronomyEllipsis of extended Lyman-Alpha blob, a huge body of gas that may be the precursor to a galaxy.
7. offensiveOne who is a morbidly obese.
8. dialectalA bubble; a bleb.

present singular third person blobs · participle present blobbing · participle past blobbed · past blobbed

1. transitiveTo splash in the form of a [Term?] or blobs.

   Bones put the tiny crimson speck between his slides, blobbed a drop of oil on top, and focused the microscope.

   1917, Edgar Wallace, chapter 6, in The Keepers of the King's Peace

   1 more example

   […] a cross has been burned during the night on Wechsler's lawn and a painted KKK blobbed across one wall of his home.

   1957 October 7, “War of Nerves”, in Time

2. transitiveTo drop a [Term?] or blobs onto; to cover with blobs.

   She was beating something in a pail, beating it with her hands; her arms were blobbed with pink froth to the elbows.

   1941, Emily Carr, chapter 20, in Klee Wyck

   1 more example

   Asked to do a mural in the coffee room of the Municipal Museum, Appel responded by blobbing all four walls and the ceiling with brilliant colors […]

   1959 December 7, “The Big Appel”, in Time, archived from the original on 27 Aug 2013

3. intransitiveTo fall in the form of a [Term?] or blobs.

   Caroline began to separate eggs, cracking them into unbelievably even halves, sliding the gold, round and elastic, from shell to shell, whilst the white hung, heavy, translucent, in thick sheets, and blobbed suddenly into her basin.

   1964, A. S. Byatt, chapter 3, in The Shadow of the Sun, Harcourt, Brace & Co., published 1991, page 47

   1 more example

   2013, Marcus Berkmann, "Blood and gore of the real 'who dunnits'," Review of Silent Witnesses by Nigel McCrery, Daily Mail, 22 August, 2013, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/books/article-2400118/Blood-gore-real-dunnits-SILENT-WITNESSES-BY-NIGEL-MCCRERY.html […] whether the blood has splashed, or blobbed, or trickled, can reveal whether the victim was killed here or moved afterwards.

4. intransitiveslangTo relax idly and mindlessly; to veg out.
5. intransitiveTo catch eels by means of worms strung on a thread.

   […] where he had surreptitiously tickled small trout, or openly "blobbed" for eels with worms threaded on to darning wool when the rains came, […]

   1937, The Argosy, volume 21, numbers 129-133, page 21

   Synonyms: bob

6. UKcolloquialintransitiveTo spill sauce on oneself while eating.

plural blobs

1. computingAlternative letter-case form of BLOB: acronym of binary large object.

plural BLOBs · alternative blob

1. abbreviationacronymcomputingAcronym of binary large object.

   I've added a BLOB so that we can store pictures.

1. USderogatoryThe section of the elite class in Washington D.C. who have moved from political or regulatory work to lobbying firms or think tanks, especially in foreign policy or on the behalf of corporations.
2. UKderogatoryThe civil service and other public bodies, perceived as prone to groupthink and acting as an obstacle to government action; the deep state.

   Mr Cummings explains his loathing for the blob in his long and entertaining blog. He argues that it is made up of “grotesque incompetents”[…]

   2020 February 6, Bagehot, “Cummings v the blob”, in The Economist

   1 more example

   Rising numbers of Tory MPs believe that Truss was the first prime minister to be intentionally deposed by the 'Blob' — the increasingly partisan quangocrats, civil servants and other key figures in Left-leaning institutions who seem determined to undermine the elected government.

   2023 September 8, Andrew Pierce, “Who really runs Britain? As Liz Truss returns to the political fray ANDREW PIERCE reveals the inside story of how she was driven out as Prime Minister by the 'Blob'”, in Daily Mail

3. A large mass of relatively warm water in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of North America that was detected in 2013 and continued to spread throughout 2014 and 2015.