Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- transitive v. To spot, blemish, or pollute.
- adj. Spotted or blotched.
- adj. Stained; impure.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- v. To spot; to stain; to blur.
- adj. Marked with spots or maculae; blotched.
- adj. Defiled; impure.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
- transitive v. To spot; to stain; to blur.
- adj. Marked with spots or maculæ; blotched; hence, defiled; impure.
from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To spot; stain; blur.
- Spotted; marked with spots; blotted; hence, stained; defiled; impure.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adj. spotted or blotched
- v. spot, stain, or pollute
- adj. morally blemished; stained or impure
- v. make dirty or spotty, as by exposure to air; also used metaphorically
Etymologies
Examples
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Because the notion of blackness has been made equivalent to sin: maculate vs. immaculate, the staining of purity.
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Its immaculate reputation sits totally at odds with its maculate workings.
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A Cordelier has no hesitation in applying the epithet of blasphemer to a Dominican who says that the Holy Virgin was born in original sin, notwithstanding that the Dominicans have a bull from the pope which permits them to teach the maculate conception in their convents, and that, besides this bull, they have in their forum the express declaration of St. Thomas Aquinas.
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He has never decided whether His mother came into the world maculate or immaculate.
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Most maculate thoughts, master, are masked under such colours.
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Well, there was no denying that, Cory thought ruefully, assimilating the pale blonde hair, artfully coiffed, the im maculate maquillage, the close fitting dove-coloured trouser suit that showed off her mother's slim, toned figure to the best advantage, and the fur jacket draped casually round her shoulders.
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But the tears and blood which follow violence and wrong maculate the pages of history on which their glory is recorded.
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Of this half-hundred a few are used in Shakespeare, but not at present, as verbs; thus, to _maculate_, to _miracle_, to _mud_, to _mist_, to _mischief_, to _moral_ -- also
Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science, Vol. XVI., December, 1880.
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To-morrow's papers would provide them with full accounts, the name of Susan Brundon among the maculate details ....
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In the maculate atmosphere of flat wine and stale cologne he had a sharp recurrence of the scent of pines, lifting warmly in sunny space.
tallpaul commented on the word maculate
Found in the poem 'Sea-Fret' by Robert Robertson from his collection Swithering.
'Rust, the penetrant,
turns iron maculate'
December 6, 2006