Definition

1. Noun:

   • A small, hollow scar or pit left on the skin after a pustule from a disease like smallpox or severe acne has healed.
   • By extension, any similar pit or mark on a surface.

2. Verb:

   • To mark or scar a surface with pits or hollows resembling pockmarks.

Usage and Examples

• Noun:

  • The old statue's surface was covered in pockmarks from years of erosion.
  • Acne can sometimes leave permanent pockmarks on the skin.

• Verb:

  • The hail pockmarked the hood of the car.
  • Years of conflict have pockmarked the city's landscape with bomb craters.

Advanced Usage

• Used figuratively: To describe something that is marred or scarred by numerous negative events or flaws.
  • The company's history was pockmarked with scandals.
  • The treaty was pockmarked by ambiguous clauses.

Variants and Related Words

• Pockmarked (adjective): Having pockmarks.
  • The pockmarked wall told a story of past neglect.

Synonyms

• Noun: Pit, scar, crater, dent, blemish.
• Verb: Pit, scar, dent, blemish, pock.

Related Phrases and Figurative Use

• "Pockmarked with": This phrase is commonly used to describe a surface or situation that is extensively marked by something undesirable.
  • The debate was pockmarked with personal attacks.
  • The moon's surface is pockmarked with impact craters.

Noun

1. a scar or pit on the skin that is left by a pustule of smallpox or acne or other eruptive disease

Verb

1. mark with or as if with pockmarks
   • Her face was pockmarked by the disease