Definition

1. Adjective:

   • Spotted or blotched: Having spots or stains; marked with discolored patches.
   • Morally blemished; stained or impure: Tainted or sullied in terms of moral purity or reputation.

2. Verb:

   • To spot, stain, or pollute: To make physically dirty or marked with spots.
   • To make dirty or spotty, as by exposure to air; also used metaphorically: To tarnish, sully, or blemish, either literally or figuratively.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:

  • The maculate surface of the old manuscript showed its age. (The spotted surface...)
  • His maculate past made it difficult for him to find a job. (His morally blemished past...)

• Verb:

  • The artist did not want to maculate the clean canvas. (The artist did not want to stain...)
  • Scandal can maculate a public figure's legacy for years. (Scandal can sully...)

Advanced Usage

• "To be maculate": To be in a stained or morally tainted state.
  • The evidence was considered maculate and therefore inadmissible.
• Used in formal/literary contexts: This word is more common in formal, academic, or literary writing than in everyday conversation.

Variants and Related Words

• Immaculate (adj): Perfectly clean, spotless, or pure. This is the direct antonym.
  • She kept an immaculate house.
• Maculation (n): The state of being spotted or stained; a spot or blemish.
  • The maculation on the leaf was caused by a fungus.

Synonyms

• Adjective (spotted): Speckled, blotchy, stained.
• Adjective (morally stained): Sullied, tainted, besmirched.
• Verb (to stain): Defile, soil, tarnish, besmirch.
• Verb (to tarnish metaphorically): Sully, blemish, stain.

Phrasal Verbs

(This word does not commonly form phrasal verbs.)

Related Idioms

(There are no common idioms that use the exact word "maculate." Its antonym, "immaculate," is used in idioms like "immaculate conception.")

Adjective

1. spotted or blotched
2. morally blemished; stained or impure

Verb

1. spot, stain, or pollute
   • The townspeople defiled the river by emptying raw sewage into it
2. make dirty or spotty, as by exposure to air; also used metaphorically
   • The silver was tarnished by the long exposure to the air
   • Her reputation was sullied after the affair with a married man