Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A pitlike scar left on the skin by smallpox or another eruptive disease.
  • noun A small pit on a surface.
  • transitive verb To cover with pockmarks; pit.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A mark or scar made by the smallpox; a pock.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A mark or pit made by smallpox.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A mark or scar in the skin caused by a pock.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a scar or pit on the skin that is left by a pustule of smallpox or acne or other eruptive disease
  • verb mark with or as if with pockmarks

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Affordable Care Act," today's decision was either the first well-deserved "pockmark" on the legislation or a wing-nut outlier, penned by a two dozen health care challenges still pending.

    Slate Magazine Dahlia Lithwick 2010

  • His store plans to vacate in January, leaving another pockmark in the skin of the nascent mall.

    At Mall Of Big Dreams, Few Shoppers 2011

  • Despite nearly £10bn of donations and aid pledges raised for Haiti, today thousands of people still live in the displacement camps and "tent cities" that pockmark the landscape.

    Haiti earthquake charities blamed as scars fail to heal 2011

  • The collapse of Solyndra is a pockmark for a government loan-guarantee program that was created in 2005 and received billions of dollars in funding under the 2009 economic-stimulus law.

    FBI Raids Solar-Panel Maker Thomas Catan 2011

  • It demonstrates that there's hope for the multitudes of isolating and impenetrable small buildings that pockmark the suburban landscape as a reminder of ill-conceived growth.

    Transforming an Ugly Duckling Laura Raskin 2011

  • Oblique lighting caresses every marble muscle and lunar pockmark in the gargoyles that, from atop Notre Dame, contemplate flâneurs below on sinful Earth.

    Graham Robb's "Parisians" and Yvon's Paris, photos of Pierre Yves Petit Michael Sims 2010

  • She has a pockmark on her forehead and deep lines from the edges of her nostrils down to the sides of her mouth but her skin radiates good health.

    Zebratown Greg Donaldson 2010

  • All these years after that awful day our leaders are still trying to figure out how to stop the terror at its source - those Al-Qaeda sponsored training centers which pockmark the landscape in faraway places like Afghanistan and Pakistan.

    Diane Dimond: The Terror Threat Still Exists 2009

  • When you are on the streets of Gettysburg and see the bullet holes that pockmark numerous homes in the area, then you think about what it would have been like to be a Gettysburg family hiding in the basement of the home, fearing for your life and wondering how it happened that your small town became the center of this massive battle.

    Kate Kelly: The Importance of Place in the American Story 2009

  • As for the crises that pockmark the landscape from Israel through the Gulf to South Asia, they obviously can't be ignored.

    "Why Do Liberals Hate Ann Althouse?" Ann Althouse 2009

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