blob

See also BLOB

English

Etymology

Possibly formed through mimesis, similarly to bleb and blubber.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /blɒb/

  Rhymes: -ɒb

• (US) IPA: /blɑb/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

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.
   • 1869: Norman Lockyer et al, Nature

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

   • 1895: The Annual of the British School at Athens

     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.

   • 1922, Virginia Woolf, Jacob's Room Chapter 1

     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.

2. In astronomy, a large cloud of gas. In particular, an extended Lyman-Alpha blob is a huge body of gas that may be the precursor to a galaxy.
3. (dialect) A bubble, a bleb.
4. A small freshwater fish (Uranidea richardsoni); the miller's thumb.

Translations

shapeless or amorphous mass

• Bulgarian: бучка (bg) (bučka), капчица (bg) (kapčica), топчица (bg) (topčica)
• Finnish: möykky (fi), kimpale (fi), klöntti (fi), kokkare (fi), klimppi (fi)
• Georgian: ბურთულა (ka) (burt'ula) , ლაქა (ka) (lak'a) 
• Greek: ‎άμορφη μάζα (ámorfi máza) f 
• Japanese: ブロッブ (ja) (burobbu)

• Romanian: please add this translation if you can
• Russian: ком (ru) (kom)
• Spanish: bodoque (es) m, mazacote (es) m
• Turkish: please add this translation if you can

See also

• cluster