Emily Dickinson Lexicon

BLOT, v.t. [Goth. blauthjan; Sw. plottra; Dan. plet, a spot, stain, blot; pletter, to blot or stain; L. litura, whence lituro, oblitero, without the prefix; and D. kladdan, with a different one.]

1. To spot with ink; to stain or bespatter with ink; as, to blot a paper.
2. To obliterate writing or letters with ink, so as to render the characters invisible, or not distinguishable; generally with out; as, to blot out a word or a sentence.
3. To efface; to erase; to cause to be unseen, or forgotten to destroy; as, to blot out a crime, or the remembrance of any thing.
4. To stain with infamy; to tarnish; to disgrace; to disfigure. Blot not thy innocence with guiltless blood. – Rowe.
5. To darken. He sung how earth blots the moon's gilded wane. – Cowley.
6. In Scripture, to blot one out of the book of life, is to reject him from the number of those who are to be saved. To blot out a name, a person or a nation, is to destroy the person or nation; to exterminate or consume. To blot out sins, is to forgive them. Sins are compared to debts, which are recorded in God's book of remembrance, and when paid, are crossed or canceled.