different between blob vs froth

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 froth, frooth, froþ, likely a borrowing from Old Norse froða, from Proto-Germanic *fruþ?; Old English ?fr?oþan (“to foam, froth”) is from same Germanic root. Verb attested from late 14th century.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /f???/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /f???/
• (cot–caught merger, Canada) IPA^(key): /f???/
• Rhymes: -??, Rhymes: -???

Noun

froth (countable and uncountable, plural froths)

1. foam

2. (figuratively) unimportant events or actions; drivel

   Thousands of African children die each day: why do the newspapers continue to discuss unnecessary showbiz froth?

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

froth (third-person singular simple present froths, present participle frothing, simple past and past participle frothed)

1. (transitive) To create froth in (a liquid).
   • 1859, Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities, Book Two, Chapter 7, [1]

     One lacquey carried the chocolate-pot into the sacred presence; a second, milled and frothed the chocolate with the little instrument he bore for that function; a third, presented the favoured napkin; a fourth (he of the two gold watches), poured the chocolate out.

   I like to froth my coffee for ten seconds exactly.

2. (intransitive) (of a liquid) To bubble.
   • 1842, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “The Wreck of the Hesperus,” lines 21-4, [2]

     Colder and louder blew the wind,

     A gale from the Northeast,

     The snow fell hissing in the brine,

     And the billows frothed like yeast.

   • 1973, “Black Day in Brussels,” Time, 19 February, 1973, [3]

     English beer, along with European brews, is already the subject of an EEC investigation to determine whether additives like stabilizers (used to prevent frothing during shipment) should be allowed.

3. (transitive) To spit, vent, or eject, as froth.
   • 1690, John Dryden, Don Sebastian, a Tragedy, Act I, Scene 1, [4]

     The Mufti reddens; mark that holy cheek.

     He frets within, froths treason at his mouth,

     And churns it thro’ his teeth […]

   • 1859, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, “Merlin and Vivien” in Idylls of the King, [5]

     […] is your spleen frothed out, or have ye more?

4. (intransitive) (literally) To spew saliva as froth; (figuratively) to rage, vent one's anger.
   • 1958, Nikos Kazantzakis, The Odyssey: A Modern Sequel (1938), translated by Kimon Friar, London: Secker and Warburg, Book XIII,

     The clumsy suckling struck out with her still soft claws,

     opened her frothing mouth until her milk teeth shone.

   • 1962, “Riding Crime's Crest” in Time, 25 April, 1962, [6]

     As doctors tried in vain to save April's right eye, news stories frothed at her assailant. He was “fiendish” (the Examiner), “sadistic” (the News-Call Bulletin), “probably a sexual psychopath” (the Chronicle).

5. (transitive) To cover with froth.

   A horse froths his chain.

Translations

Derived terms

• frothy
• froth at the mouth
• froth up

References

Anagrams

• Forth, forth, forth-