divot

plural divots

1. especiallygolfA torn-up piece of turf, especially by a golf club in making a stroke or by a horse's hoof.

   Soon, thick dark tufts of hair began to spread across his scalp, hanging over his ears, a moor of unruly divots which he was first unable to tame and with time willingly cultivated.

   2007, Lewis Crofts, chapter 1, in The Pornographer of Vienna, London: Old Street, page 4

   1 more example

   Usually her voice came over the wire as something fresh and cool, as if a divot from a green golf-links had come sailing in at the office window, but this morning it seemed harsh and dry.

   1925, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, chapter 8, in The Great Gatsby, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, published 1953, →ISBN, page 155

2. A disruption in an otherwise smooth contour.

   In these coldest hours before dawn, from three until six, I take up my knife again and hack at the chockstone. I continue to make minimal but visible progress in the divot.

   2004, Aron Ralston, 127 Hours: Between a Rock and a Hard Place, Simon and Schuster, published 2011, page 68

3. astronomyA drop in a graph between two linear portions (example)

present singular third person divots · participle present divoting · participle past divoted · past divoted

1. especiallytransitivegolfTo tear up pieces of turf from, especially with a golf club in making a stroke.