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On the spot   /ɑn ðə spɑt/   Listen
noun
Spot  n.  
1.
A mark on a substance or body made by foreign matter; a blot; a place discolored. "Out, damned spot! Out, I say!"
2.
A stain on character or reputation; something that soils purity; disgrace; reproach; fault; blemish. "Yet Chloe, sure, was formed without a spot."
3.
A small part of a different color from the main part, or from the ground upon which it is; as, the spots of a leopard; the spots on a playing card.
4.
A small extent of space; a place; any particular place. "Fixed to one spot." "That spot to which I point is Paradise." ""A jolly place," said he, "in times of old! But something ails it now: the spot is cursed.""
5.
(Zool.) A variety of the common domestic pigeon, so called from a spot on its head just above its beak.
6.
(Zool.)
(a)
A sciaenoid food fish (Liostomus xanthurus) of the Atlantic coast of the United States. It has a black spot behind the shoulders and fifteen oblique dark bars on the sides. Called also goody, Lafayette, masooka, and old wife.
(b)
The southern redfish, or red horse, which has a spot on each side at the base of the tail. See Redfish.
7.
pl. Commodities, as merchandise and cotton, sold for immediate delivery. (Broker's Cant)
Crescent spot (Zool.), any butterfly of the family Melitaeidae having crescent-shaped white spots along the margins of the red or brown wings.
Spot lens (Microscopy), a condensing lens in which the light is confined to an annular pencil by means of a small, round diaphragm (the spot), and used in dark-field illumination; called also spotted lens.
Spot rump (Zool.), the Hudsonian godwit (Limosa haemastica).
Spots on the sun. (Astron.) See Sun spot, ander Sun.
On the spot, or Upon the spot, immediately; before moving; without changing place; as, he made his decision on the spot. "It was determined upon the spot."
Synonyms: Stain; flaw; speck; blot; disgrace; reproach; fault; blemish; place; site; locality.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"On the spot" Quotes from Famous Books



... Lion and ran into a cave where a Goat lived. The Goat tried to stop his entrance, and struck at him with his horns. The Bull, though cross at this, did not butt at the Goat on the spot, but just said, "Do not think that I fear you. Wait till the Lion is out of sight, and then I will treat you as you deserve." Never profit by the woes ...
— Boys and Girls Bookshelf (Vol 2 of 17) - Folk-Lore, Fables, And Fairy Tales • Various

... On reaching the hall, I found the smoke issuing from the warming shaft in the floor. I returned, quietly warned my wife and others of the danger, and soon the master of the hotel and all the servants were on the spot. In their excitement to subdue it, before the numerous visitors should be alarmed, they opened the aperture still more, so as to give free vent to the smoke. I at once told them their mistake, and, ...
— Fair Italy, the Riviera and Monte Carlo • W. Cope Devereux

... conclusions. "It may be at once observed," he says, "that my belief in the general principle that islands have always been islands has not been shaken," and he entirely rejects "the hypothesis of a Pacific continent." He comes back, in full view of the problems on the spot, to the position from which, as has been seen, Darwin started: "If the distribution of a particular group of plants or animals does not seem to accord with the present arrangement of the land, it ...
— Darwin and Modern Science • A.C. Seward and Others

... the sole possession of two police agents—every one of the inmates being removed to prison on the spot. The Sub-prefect, after taking down my "proces verbal" in his office, returned with me to my hotel to get my passport. "Do you think," I asked, as I gave it to him, "that any men have really been smothered in that bed, as ...
— Masterpieces of Mystery - Riddle Stories • Various

... and that, when it occurs to their afflicted daughters to go and pray at their tombs, they generally choose a particularly inclement night as best adapted for that purpose. It is convenient, too, if any murder took place exactly on the spot, exactly twenty years before, because in that case it is something agreeable to reflect upon and ...
— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, Complete • Various


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