dot

Etymology 1

From Middle English *dot, dotte, from Old English dott (“a dot, point”), from Proto-West Germanic *dott, from Proto-Germanic *duttaz (“wisp”). Cognate with Saterland Frisian Dot, Dotte (“a clump”), Dutch dot (“lump, knot, clod”), Low German Dutte (“a plug”), dialectal Swedish dott (“a little heap, bunch, clump”).

noun

1. A small, round spot.
   a dot of colour
   Long stood Sir Bedivere / Revolving many memories, till the hull / Look’d one black dot against the verge of dawn / And on the mere the wailing died away. 1845, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “Morte d’Arthur”, in Poems, lines 269–272
   THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO A VERY SMALL DOT IN A VERY BIG UNIVERSE 1914, Rowland R. Gibson, Forces Mining and Undermining China, 2nd edition, London: Andrew Melrose, →OCLC, →OL, page v
2. (grammar) A punctuation mark used to indicate the end of a sentence or an abbreviated part of a word; a full stop; a period.
3. A point used as a diacritical mark above or below various letters of the Latin script, as in Ȧ, Ạ, Ḅ, Ḃ, Ċ.
4. (mathematics) A symbol used for separating the fractional part of a decimal number from the whole part, for indicating multiplication or a scalar product, or for various other purposes.
5. One of the two symbols used in Morse code.
   The alphabetical signals are made up of combinations of dots and of lines of different lengths. 1838, William Hamilton, “Report on Prof. Morse’s Electro-Magnetic Telegraph”, in Journal of the Franklin Institute
6. (obsolete) A lump or clot.
7. Anything small and like a speck comparatively; a small portion or specimen.
   a dot of a child
8. (cricket, informal) A dot ball.
   That left 15 needed from Boult's final set. Two dots were followed by a heave over deep mid-wicket, then came the outrageous moment of fortune. 14 July 2019, Stephan Shemilt, “England win Cricket World Cup: Ben Stokes stars in dramatic finale against New Zealand”, in BBC Sport, London
9. (MLE) buckshot, projectile from a "dotty" or shotgun
   Can’t miss no dots Every shot let caused I’m hittin Used to bag it up in the toilet 2018, “Rolling Round”, HL8 and SimpzBeatz (music), performed by Sparko of OMH
10. (MLE) Clipping of dotty (“shotgun”).
    We got rambos, glocks and dots, It takes two armed jakes to sum off the block 09-09-2018, “Hide N Seek”, in C1 (lyrics), Tulse Hill Slums, from 1:06–1:09

verb

1. (transitive) To cover with small spots (of some liquid).
   His jacket was dotted with splashes of paint.
2. (transitive) To add a dot (the symbol) or dots to.
   Dot your is and cross your ts.
3. To mark by means of dots or small spots.
   to dot a line
4. To mark or diversify with small detached objects.
   to dot a landscape with cottages
   Wooden crosses, some drunkenly askew, dot a darkened stage at the start of Vuyani Dance Theater’s “Cion: Requiem of Ravel’s Bolero.” There is silence, then the sound of weeping, which escalates to heart-rending, gasping sobs. 2023-04-14, Rosyln Sulcas, “Review: Grief and Mourning, Delivered With Ecstatic Vitality”, in The New York Times
5. (colloquial) To punch (a person).
   `Which means,' said John, `that someone dotted him a good one, shoved him into the bathtub, ran the water, then opened his mouth and poured champagne into it until he drowned.' 2016, Kerry Greenwood, Murder and Mendelssohn, Sydney: Allen and Unwin, page 332

prep

1. Dot product of the previous vector and the following vector.
   The work is equal to F dot Δx.

Etymology 2

From French dot.

noun

1. (US, Louisiana) A dowry.
   As a bride, Madame de Talleyrand had brought a small dot of fifteen thousand francs to the family fund. 1927, Anna Bowman Dodd, Talleyrand: the Training of a Statesman