different between blob vs fraction

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /bl?b/

  Rhymes: -?b

• (US) IPA^(key): /bl?b/
• Homophone: BLOB

Etymology 1

Possibly formed through mimesis, similarly to bleb and blubber.

Noun

blob (plural blobs)

1. A shapeless or amorphous mass; a vague shape or amount, especially of a liquid or semisolid substance; a clump, group or collection that lacks definite shape.
   • 1869: Norman Lockyer et al, Nature

     Only the outermost blob on either side in map 2 displays misalignment.

   • 1895: The Annual of the British School at Athens

     It was a colourful vase with red and white hoops on the lid, and red bands above and below the main frieze. These bands also carry a metope pattern in white of triple lines and blobs, which can just be distinguished on the photographs.
2. (astronomy) A large cloud of gas.
   1. Ellipsis of extended Lyman-Alpha blob (a huge body of gas that may be the precursor to a galaxy).
3. (dialect) A bubble; a bleb.
4. A small freshwater fish (Cottus bairdii); the miller's thumb.
5. The partially inflated air bag used in the sport of blobbing.
6. (sports, slang) A score of zero.
   • 1925, Punch (volume 168, page 561)

     A gentleman named W. Shakespeare scored a blob in the Worcestershire v. Lancashire match. We understand that he got out because the ball pitched on a "damned spot."

Derived terms

• bloblike
• blobby

Translations

See also

• cluster

Verb

blob (third-person singular simple present blobs, present participle blobbing, simple past and past participle blobbed)

1. (transitive) To drop in the form of a blob or blobs
   • 1957, "War of Nerves," Time, 7 October, 1957, [3]

     […] a cross has been burned during the night on Wechsler's lawn and a painted KKK blobbed across one wall of his home.

2. (transitive) To drop a blob or blobs onto, cover with blobs.
   • 1959, "The Big Appel," Time, 7 December, 1959, [5]

     Asked to do a mural in the coffee room of the Municipal Museum, Appel responded by blobbing all four walls and the ceiling with brilliant colors […]

3. (intransitive) To fall in the form of a blob or blobs.
   • 1964, A. S. Byatt, The Shadow of the Sun, Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1991, Chapter Three, p. 47,

     Caroline began to separate eggs, cracking them into unbelievably even halves, sliding the gold, round and elastic, from shell to shell, whilst the white hung, heavy, translucent, in thick sheets, and blobbed suddenly into her basin.

   • 2013, Marcus Berkmann, "Blood and gore of the real 'who dunnits'," Review of Silent Witnesses by Nigel McCrery, Daily Mail, 22 August, 2013, [6]

     […] whether the blood has splashed, or blobbed, or trickled, can reveal whether the victim was killed here or moved afterwards.

4. (intransitive, slang) To relax idly and mindlessly; to veg out.

Translations

Etymology 2

Noun

blob (plural blobs)

1. Alternative spelling of BLOB

References

Anagrams

• Lobb

English

Etymology

From Middle English fraccioun (“a breaking”), from Anglo-Norman, Old French fraction, from Medieval Latin fractio (“a fragment, portion”), from earlier Latin fractio (“a breaking, a breaking into pieces”), from fractus (English fracture), past participle of frangere (“to break”) (whence English frangible), from Proto-Indo-European *b?reg- (English break).

Pronunciation

• enPR: fr?k?sh?n, IPA^(key): /?f?æk.??n/
• Rhymes: -æk??n

Noun

fraction (plural fractions)

1. A part of a whole, especially a comparatively small part.
2. (arithmetic) A ratio of two numbers, the numerator and the denominator, usually written one above the other and separated by a horizontal bar.
3. (chemistry) A component of a mixture, separated by fractionation.
4. In a eucharistic service, the breaking of the host.
5. A small amount.
6. The act of breaking, or state of being broken, especially by violence.
   • 1563, John Foxe, Actes and Monuments

     Neither can the natural body of Christ be subject to any fraction or breaking.

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:fraction.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Verb

fraction (third-person singular simple present fractions, present participle fractioning, simple past and past participle fractioned)

1. To divide or break into fractions.

Translations

References

• “fraction” in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
• “fraction”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 2000, ?ISBN
• "fraction" in WordNet 2.0, Princeton University, 2003.

Anagrams

• Croftian, factor in, infocrat

French

Etymology

From Old French fraction, borrowed from Latin fractio, fractionem.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /f?ak.sj??/

Noun

fraction f (plural fractions)

1. fraction (small amount)

2. (mathematics) fraction

3. fraction, breakup

Derived terms

• barre de fraction
• fractionnaire
• fractionner

Related terms

• fracture

Further reading

• “fraction” in Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Anagrams

• fronçait