blot on the escutcheon
- idiom
- Archaic
:
mancha en el escudo
- No amount of good deeds could remove that blot on the escutcheon from her public image.
Examples
-
The scandal was a serious blot on the escutcheon of the politician.
-
The scandal proved to be a lasting blot on the escutcheon of the entire organization.
-
For years, the incident remained the only blot on the escutcheon of his otherwise stellar career.
-
He worked hard to remove the blot on the escutcheon from his family's name.
-
The scandal was a serious blot on the escutcheon of the once-respected politician.
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After the cheating incident, he felt it was a blot on the escutcheon of his academic record.
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Her arrest for fraud became a significant blot on the escutcheon of her business reputation.
Synonyms
34
6.8
A mark on someone's reputation that makes others respect them less
9
4.7
An event that hurts how people see someone
7
5.8
A thing that makes people think less of someone
3
6.3
A mark that damages a person's reputation or record
1
9.9
A mark that harms a person's reputation
1
9.9
A rude word for a lasting mark that hurts someone's reputation
Damage to a person's good name by saying untrue things
A rude word for a mark or event that badly damages someone's reputation
Antonyms
How Damaging
Surface Forms
Morphology
blot + on + the + escutcheon
The phrase is compositionally built from 'blot' (a stain or disgrace) + 'on' + 'escutcheon' (a heraldic shield), so the literal image of a stain on a coat-of-arms maps to a stain on reputation. However, understanding that an 'escutcheon' stands metonymically for family or personal honour requires cultural/historical knowledge beyond basic word meanings, so the connection is only partially predictable to learners.
Etymology
The phrase blot on the escutcheon comes from old family shields: a blot is a dark mark and an escutcheon is the shield that shows a family's symbols, and a mark would spoil the shield's look. So a 'blot on the escutcheon' means a 'stain' on someone's 'reputation' or record that hurts how people see them.