dot

dot 1[dot] ExamplesWord Origin See more synonyms for dot on Thesaurus.com noun

1. a small, roundish mark made with or as if with a pen.
2. a minute or small spot on a surface; speck: There were dots of soot on the window sill.
3. anything relatively small or specklike.
4. a small specimen, section, amount, or portion: a dot of butter.
5. a period, especially as used when pronouncing an Internet address.
6. Music.
   1. a point placed after a note or rest, to indicate that the duration of the note or rest is to be increased one half. A double dot further increases the duration by one half the value of the single dot.
   2. a point placed under or over a note to indicate that it is to be played staccato.
7. Telegraphy. a signal of shorter duration than a dash, used in groups along with groups of dashes and spaces to represent letters, as in Morse code.
8. Printing. an individual element in a halftone reproduction.

verb (used with object), dot·ted, dot·ting.

9. to mark with or as if with a dot or dots.
10. to stud or diversify with or as if with dots: Trees dot the landscape.
11. to form or cover with dots: He dotted a line across the page.
12. Cookery. to sprinkle with dabs of butter, margarine, or the like: Dot the filling with butter.

verb (used without object), dot·ted, dot·ting.

13. to make a dot or dots.

Idioms

14. dot one’s i’s and cross one’s t’s, to be meticulous or precise, even to the smallest detail.
15. on the dot, Informal. precisely; exactly at the time specified: The guests arrived at eight o’clock on the dot.
16. the year dot, British Informal. very long ago.

Origin of dot 1 before 1000; perhaps to be identified with Old English dott head of a boil, though not attested in Middle English; cf. dottle, dit, derivative of Old English dyttan to stop up (probably derivative of dott); cognate with Old High German tutta nippleRelated formsdot·like, adjectivedot·ter, noun dot 2[dot, dawt] noun Civil Law.

1. dowry(def 1).

Origin of dot 2 1850–55; French Latin dōtem, accusative of dōs dowry, akin to dāre to giveRelated formsdo·tal [doht-l] /ˈdoʊt l/, adjective Dot [dot] noun

1. a female given name, form of Dorothea and Dorothy.

DOT

1. Department of Transportation.
2. Dictionary of Occupational Titles.

Related Words for dot droplet, fleck, speck, dab, sprinkle, stud, pepper, tittle, jot, mote, particle, point, spot, period, grain, atom, circle, mite, iota, pinpoint Examples from the Web for dot Contemporary Examples of dot

Griffin mined the portfolios of four artists to create the vast collection of images that dot the book.

A YA Novel About a Warhol Girl With Banksy Talent

Hugh Ryan

August 14, 2014

That question is being raised again in light of previously unseen chat logs uncovered by Motherboard and the Daily Dot.

How an FBI Informant Orchestrated LulzSec’s Hacking Spree

Joshua Kopstein

June 6, 2014

Then after 9/11 and the Dot Com Crash, the money for a lot of the tech consulting she was doing in New York City dried up.

Inside the Cult of CrossFit

William O’Connor

May 30, 2014

A circle with a dot may be “3” on the keypad, while an arrow could be “9.”

How to Use Your Lunch Hour for Better Productivity, Without Ever Taking a Bite

Gregory Ferenstein

April 23, 2014

To send suggestions for future editions, email david (dot) sessions (at) thedailybeast (dot) com.

The Daily Beast’s Best Longreads, March 1, 2013

March 1, 2014

Historical Examples of dot

If ever she was suited to a dot, it was jest then ‘n’ there.

The Village Watch-Tower

(AKA Kate Douglas Riggs) Kate Douglas Wiggin

“I didn’t said dot I vould be a goot sby, Dick,” responded Fritz.

The Dare Boys of 1776

Stephen Angus Cox

It was almost forty minutes to the dot when Hilary’s head emerged from the cleft.

Slaves of Mercury

Nat Schachner

A dot on the desert expanded into a pit, a tower, and some small buildings.

The Big Tomorrow

Paul Lohrman

Lo, at last, there was a dot on the clouds, And—at last and at last— —God—the sky was filled with armies.

War is Kind

Stephen Crane

British Dictionary definitions for dot dot 1 noun

1. a small round mark made with or as with a pen, etc; spot; speck; point
2. anything resembling a dot; a small amounta dot of paint
3. the mark (˙) that appears above the main stem of the letters i, j
4. music
   1. the symbol (·) placed after a note or rest to increase its time value by half
   2. this symbol written above or below a note indicating that it must be played or sung staccato
5. maths logic
   1. the symbol (.) indicating multiplication or logical conjunction
   2. a decimal point
6. the symbol (·) used, in combination with the symbol for dash (–), in the written representation of Morse and other telegraphic codesCompare dit
7. the year dot informal as long ago as can be remembered
8. on the dot at exactly the arranged time

verb dots, dotting or dotted

9. (tr) to mark or form with a dotto dot a letter; a dotted crotchet
10. (tr) to scatter or intersperse (with dots or something resembling dots)bushes dotting the plain
11. (intr) to make a dot or dots
12. dot one’s i’s and cross one’s t’s to pay meticulous attention to detail

Derived Formsdotter, nounWord Origin for dot Old English dott head of a boil; related to Old High German tutta nipple, Norwegian dott, Dutch dott lump dot 2 noun

1. civil law a woman’s dowry

Derived Formsdotal (ˈdəʊtəl), adjectiveWord Origin for dot C19: from French, from Latin dōs; related to dōtāre to endow, dāre to give Word Origin and History for dot n.

Old English dott “speck, head of a boil,” perhaps related to Norwegian dot “lump, small knot,” Dutch dot “knot, small bunch, wisp,” Old High German tutta “nipple;” ultimate origin unclear.

Known from a single source c.1000; the word reappeared with modern meaning “mark” c.1530; not common until 18c. Morse telegraph sense is from 1838. On the dot “punctual” is 1909, in reference to a clock dial face. Dot-matrix first attested 1975.

v.

1740, from dot (n.). Related: Dotted; dotting.

dot in Medicine dot [dŏt] n.

1. A tiny round mark made by or as if by a pointed instrument; a spot.

dot in Science dot [dŏt]

1. A symbol (·) indicating multiplication, as in 2 · 4 = 8. It is used to indicate the dot product of vectors, for example A · B.
2. A period, as used as in URLs and e-mail addresses, to separate strings of words, as in www.hmco.com.

Idioms and Phrases with dot dot

In addition to the idiom beginning with dot

dot the i’s and cross the t’s

also see:

on the dot

sign on the dotted line