Definitions

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

  • noun A blotted pattern of spilled ink.
  • noun A pattern resembling an inkblot that is used in Rorschach tests.

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

  • noun a blot of ink
  • noun figuratively a dark, shapeless object
  • noun psychology one of the pictures used as stimuli in the Rorschach inkblot test

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

  • noun a blot made with ink

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The title comes not from the company's namesake, Swiss psychoanalytic pioneer Hermann Rorschach and his inkblot test, but from the German word for inkblot, "kleck," which was Rorschach's nickname as a boy because he liked to draw, and from a childhood game he played making up stories based on shapes in inkblots.

    Rorschach, putting on its inking cap Jane Horwitz 2010

  • Nicholson wants his troops to focus mostly on the most populated towns, adhering to the so-called inkblot concept -- once you control populated areas, control seeps outwards.

    ABC News: ABCNews 2009

  • Nicholson wants his troops to focus mostly on the most populated towns, adhering to the so-called inkblot concept -- once you control populated areas, control seeps outwards.

    ABC News: ABCNews 2009

  • He dubbed the approach the "inkblot" strategy, for how counterinsurgency would slowly spread, village by village, on the map.

    Military Innovator Who Sought New Approach to Battle in Vietnam 2009

  • His secondary-school nickname was Kleck, meaning "inkblot," because of his interest in sketching.

    Archive 2008-04-01 Staq Mavlen 2008

  • His secondary-school nickname was Kleck, meaning "inkblot," because of his interest in sketching.

    Died This Day: Hermann Rorschach Staq Mavlen 2008

  • First of all, there is that ninth amendment "inkblot".

    I think I've found the ultimate in anti-Palin gas-baggery. Ann Althouse 2008

  • Bork described the Ninth as an "inkblot" with an indiscernible meaning.

    Where is the Ninth Amendment hiding? 2007

  • Democrats should instead urge that the United States send in more troops in a spreading ''inkblot'' strategy to secure neighborhoods and deny support and safe haven for terrorists, as numerous military experts have advocated since the war began.

    Archive 2007-03-25 Sinfonian 2007

  • Democrats should instead urge that the United States send in more troops in a spreading ''inkblot'' strategy to secure neighborhoods and deny support and safe haven for terrorists, as numerous military experts have advocated since the war began.

    DINOs write letters, don't they? Sinfonian 2007

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