Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A piece of turf torn up by a golf club in striking a ball, or by a horse's hoof.
- n. Scots A thin square of turf or sod used for roofing.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A piece of turf; a square sod, of a kind used to cover roofs, build outhouses, etc.
- n. In golf, a piece of turf cut out with a club in playing a stroke.
Wiktionary
- n. A torn up piece of turf (e.g. by a golf club in making a stroke or by a horse's hoof).
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Scot. A thin, oblong turf used for covering cottages, and also for fuel.
- n. (Golf) a small piece of turf gouged out of the ground by the head of a golf club when making a stroke.
WordNet 3.0
- n. (golf) the cavity left when a piece of turf is cut from the ground by the club head in making a stroke
- n. a piece of turf dug out of a lawn or fairway (by an animals hooves or a golf club)
Etymologies
- Scots, a turf. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“The ball-mark repair tool (often incorrectly called a divot-repair tool), has been around for decades and is iconic for many golfers.”
“Gulley said there was a bleeding "divot" in his head likely caused by fallen ceiling matter.”
“Everyone replaces his divot after a perfect approach shot.”
“About 2 hours ago: "I think he wore an earring at some point, you could see the little divot in his earlobe — how long ago and why?”
“That didn't apply in this case because the ball was clearly coming down the steep slope toward his divot.”
“The second time, Villegas walked over and casually swatted away some loose pieces of grass in front of the divot as the ball was still moving down the slope.”
“Granderson then stood up, replaced the divot he tore out of the Fenway outfield and trotted back to the dugout as Burnett applauded gratefully.”
The Wall Street Journal: Shockingly, A.J. Shuts Down the Sox
“My thoughts have scattered and are hiding in the divot just behind my left ear while my nerves are so tense they're humming Puccini.”
“But as McDonagh followed through on his shot, the toe of his left skate lodged in a divot, and he crumpled to the ice with what seemed a serious leg injury.”
“He placed the first trap in the divot, sprinkling enough snow over top that the Indian would not be able to see it if he was moving with any speed.”
The Huffington Post: Narrative Magazine's Friday Feature: Alexi Zentner's 'Trapline'
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘divot’.
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wallace
Remington, Windsor, prorector, wen, aver, mottle, seltzer, tepee, lapidary, effete, sotto, presbyopia and 355 more...
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golf related words
everything golf
baffy, baff, airshot, albatross, backswing, birdie, birdieing, bisque, blaster, bogey, brassy, brassie and 102 more...
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Grasses
Grasses, and words about grasses.
Prairie grasses names are found in this list.
Names of medical marijuana strains can be found elsewhere.cheatgrass, downy brome, chess, brome, bronco-grass, graminoid, grassland, phytolith, steppe, tallgrass prairie, sword grass, panicle and 323 more...
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Golf Words
I loathe golf, but I love the olde fashioned names for the clubs.
playclub, brassie, spoon, cleek, baffy, mashie, niblick, divot, chilly-dip, the yips, skull, texas wedge and 41 more...
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slumry's Words
cattywampus, ingratiate, lackadaisical, exactitude, exfoliate, fulminate, circumnavigation, circuitous, debride, sidle, sequester, chicory and 1002 more...
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Words I'd Like to Use Someday
thundersnow, phantasmagoria, mercurial, chimerical, taciturn, paraclete, lapis lazuli, flay, guttersnipe, wonky, misanthrope, kestrel and 583 more...
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Mollusque's miscellany
A mixture of words that I like or have commented on, along with ones parked here so they'd be listed somewhere or remind me of lists I want to make.
oranger, monographer, preoccupied, bu, bobization, coinventor, tetrapyloctomy, borgmannian, suspercollate, manhug, mancrush, obituarist and 604 more...
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madmelanie's Words
monkey, folderol, snark, snarky, flibbertigibbet, faith, asshat, pirouette, avuncular, exegesis, memento mori, verisimilitude and 379 more...
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sionnach's Words
contumely, fomite, holmgang, poltroon, eleemosynary, obsidian, nugatory, grindcore, felch, recrudescent, pyx, parenteral and 3271 more...
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End in -ot
Just what it says. Words that end in -ot.
wainscot, ascot, marmot, jot, ocelot, spot, blot, scot, lot, shot, dot, snot and 219 more...
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vylettefairwell's Words
velvet, shiny, monkey, divot, caramel, smut, fetish, bastinado, cookie, fathom, panties, sugar and 3 more...
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Kneeedeeep!
Words that resemble the calls of frogs, toads and other garrulous amphibians. It helps if you say them a few times. And crouch down. Elbows out. With a fly on your tongue.
knee deep, rhetoric, coquí, robot, wart, ribizli, laklak, divot, bedebt, brekekekex, tidbit, pogrom and 7 more...
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fitzgeraldean
snobbishly, riotous, impressionability, gestures, hope, gorgeous, dreams, elations, lawns, egg, mansion, supercilious and 60 more...
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week 4
ceaselessly, orgastic, subtle, unutterable, elocution, superfluous, surmise, derange, pasquinade, formidable, rancor, laden and 8 more...
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Girl With Curious Hair
divot, neurasthenic, exemplum, collate, concatenate, redolent, mastication, pidgin, endemic, demiurge, mythopoeic, recalcitrant and 52 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for divot.

billprice Out in the wild, this word is being used to mean a scratch or shallow trough (on any surface), or else the material removed to create such a depression. I looked it up today because "divot" was the word that popped into my mind to describe a depressed feature on a vertical column, and I realized I had no idea what the literal definition of the word was.
Example usages I googled up:
"I came home and read some Alain Badiou, sinking into the divot I'd worked into the couch."
"The catalyst that created this working forum of service leaders is a challenge we define as the 'sales divot.'"
"Last night I noticed there is a divot in the enamel in my front tooth." Apr 17, 2010