blotto

Adjective

blotto (comparative more blotto, superlative most blotto)

1. (informal) (Very) drunk or intoxicated.
   • Dear old Squiffy was always rather a lad for the wassail-bowl. When I met him in Paris, I remember, he was quite tolerably blotto.1920 March – 1921 February, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “Mr. Roscoe Sherriff has an Idea”, in Indiscretions of Archie, New York, N.Y.: A[lbert] L[evi] Burt Company, […], published 1921, →OCLC...
   • I drank a lot of wine – and afterwards, at Les Vikings, Akvavit – and was completely blotto (well, not completely, but enough to talk a lot and get the Hungarian talking and not be bored).1939 September 8, Simone de Beauvoir, “September 1939 – March 1940: The Phoney War”, in Quintin Hoare, transl., Letters to Sartre, New York, N.Y.: Arcade Publishing, published 2011, →ISBN, pages 46–47

   Synonyms:

   Adrian Quist, adrip, aled up, all mops and brooms, arseholed, a sheet in the wind, a sheet in the wind's eye, bedrunken, befuddled, beliquored

Noun (1)

blotto (plural blottos or blottoes)

1. (informal) A person who is (very) drunk or intoxicated.
   • Remember, Blanche DuBois was a blotto and her trip to New Orleans didn't get her anywhere. Nuff said.1979, Margaret Oberman, Doug Steckler, I Could Have Been a Contender: Or, The Other Book of Lists, New York, N.Y.: Avon, →ISBN, page 102
   • His [Joe Jonsson's] drawings and rollicking humor about burglars, cardsharps, turf punters, jockeys and "blottos" (drunks) were a continuation in theme of the work of the early Bulletin artists Alf Vincent and Ambrose Dyson.1983, Maurice Horn, editor, The World Encyclopedia of Cartoons, volumes 3 (Gia–Mau), New York, N.Y.: Chelsea House Publishers, →ISBN, page 326, column 1
2. An artwork created using blots of ink or paint.
   • The authors' most penetrating work seems to me, their contribution along the lines of the interview with the child, the use of sketches, blottoes, etc. "Draw a picture of this house. Who lives there? Show where the different members sleep" […]1932, Public Health Reviews, Ann Arbor, Mich.: Division of Hygiene and Public Health, University of Michigan, →OCLC
   • The pictures on these cards which I am going to show you are such ink-blot pictures. They do not really represent anything. They are accidental blottos. All you have to do is to look at them one by one and tell me what they might be, what they could represent for you.1942, Bruno Klopfer, Douglas McGlashan Kelley, “Appendix to Part Three”, in The Rorschach Technique: A Manual for a Projective Method of Personality Diagnosis, Yonkers-on-Hudson, N.Y.: World Book...

Verb

blotto (third-person singular simple present blottos or blottoes, present participle blottoing, simple past and past participle blottoed)

1. (informal, intransitive) To become or cause to become (very) drunk or intoxicated.
   • An entire bottle would have blottoed me. I marvel how Leigh managed to give my name to the manager.1994, Grif Stockley, Religious Conviction (Ivy Books Fiction), New York, N.Y.: Ivy Books, →ISBN, page 266
   • Wherever distilled spirits dominate over beer or wine, this nocturnal culture emerges, and with it the kind of alcoholism that never plateaus but merely blottoes, retreating into a night of its own and sometimes remaining there for a week at a time. You witness this among Poles, Russians, Swedes...2006 June 12, Roger Scruton, “Southern Comfort”, in New Statesman, volume 135, London: New Statesman Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 58, column 3
2. (informal, intransitive) To be annihilated or destroyed; to be blotted out.
   • [H]is soul, spinning in centrifugal lust and fury until he sputters out through the hole in the center of him; going down like a gas bag—vault, cellar, ribs, skin, blood, tissue, mind, and heart all consumed, devoured, blottoed in final annihilation.1936, Henry Miller, “Megalopolitan Maniac”, in Black Spring, Paris: The Obelisk Press […], →OCLC; republished New York, N.Y.: Grove Press, 1963, →ISBN, page 241
   • John Huston provides a few of the worst moments himself, or, at least, his tape editor does it for him by bumblingly patching on Huston's voice in one series of spot announcements—Jehovah himself dictating Creation to the sounds of [Toshiro] Mayuzumi's fade-in, fade-out neo-primordial slither. Even...1967, Hi Fi/Stereo Review, volume 18, Chicago, Ill.: Ziff-Davis Pub. Co., →OCLC, page 93

Noun (2)

blotto (uncountable)

1. A reagent made from non-fat dry milk, phosphate buffered saline, and sodium azide, which is used to block protein binding sites for laboratory techniques such as blots and the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA).
   • Secondary goat anti-rabbit antiserum coupled to horseradish peroxidase at a dilution of 1:500 in blotto was then incubated with the blot for 1 hour. Again the unbound antibodies were removed by three rinses in 10% blotto for 15 minutes.2006, Kimberly Kay Kutz-Naber, Mass Spectral Characterization of Neuropeptides in Cancer Crabs: Method Development and Biological Application (unpublished Ph. D. dissertation), [Madison, Wis.]...
   • Generalized background staining of colostral cell preparations was blocked most effectively with Blotto + 10% FBS.2007, Anna Levitt Smith, Detection of Bovine Leukemia Virus in Density-separated Bovine Colostral Cells (unpublished M.S. dissertation), [Davis, Calif.]: University of California, Davis, →OCLC, page...

Noun (3)

UK/b(ə)ˈləʊtəʊ/US/b(ə)ˈloʊtoʊ/

blotto (plural blottos)

1. (obsolete) On Sulawesi: a hollowed-out tree trunk used as a boat.
   • The canoes that are in common use on the lake are of the most primitive and unstable type. They simply consist of a semi-cylinder, hollowed out of a tree stem, with the ends filled up with mud and grass. These canoes are called blotto or ballotto by the natives. […] They are of every size, from the...1889, Sydney J[ohn] Hickson, “Journey through Minahassa”, in A Naturalist in North Celebes: […], London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, page 217
   • The agent of the Packet Company is ready to give information about it, and to look after the hiring of horses and blottos.1897, J[ohan] F[rans] van Bemmelen, G. B. Hooyer, translated by B. J. Berrington, Guide to the Dutch East Indies: Composed by Invitation of the Koninklijke Paketvaart Maatschappij (Royal Steam Packet...

Noun (4) capitalized: Blotto

Blotto (uncountable)

1. Alternative letter-case form of blotto (“reagent used to block protein binding sites for laboratory techniques”).
   • Generalized background staining of colostral cell preparations was blocked most effectively with Blotto + 10% FBS.2007, Anna Levitt Smith, Detection of Bovine Leukemia Virus in Density-separated Bovine Colostral Cells (unpublished M.S. dissertation), [Davis, Calif.]: University of California, Davis, →OCLC, page...