How to Use blotter in a Sentence

blotter

noun
Definition of blotternext
  • At times, the reports read like the police blotter in any small town.
    — Rukmini Callimachi, New York Times, 1 July 2018
  • Imagine, these players still go to class, stay off the police blotters, and shoot the lights out with the three ball.
    — Bill Lyon, Philly.com, 14 Apr. 2018
  • These are delish, made better with a bit of blotter time (grab some napkins) to siphon off some of the oil.
    — Amy Drew Thompson, orlandosentinel.com, 22 Apr. 2021
  • The crime blotter has been a staple at many departments in the D.C. region and around the country for decades.
    — Washington Post, 28 Sep. 2021
  • Our newsroom subscribes to the Journal-Courier, and reporters were able to search the archives and see the blotter items in print.
    — Charles Ornstein, ProPublica, 15 Feb. 2023
  • It’s made of Italian leather and available in 11 colors and sizes, ranging from mouse pad to blotter.
    — Alejandra Bennett, Sunset, 22 Jan. 2018
  • Constantin grins and pulls up the blotter that rests atop his desk, then pries a color photo from beneath it.
    — John Walters, Newsweek, 26 Oct. 2014
  • Police said in a blotter post that a 79-year-old man who was stabbed in the neck and a 77-year-old man who was stabbed in the back were taken to Harborview Medical Center.
    — Washington Post, 10 July 2019
  • Curtains also have been added to absorb excess sound like a blotter.
    — San Diego Union-Tribune, 8 Nov. 2020
  • His desk was covered by a large piece of blotter paper listing hundreds of phone numbers, his version of a rolodex.
    — Jamie Padell, Billboard, 26 Jan. 2018
  • In this week’s crime blotter: a huge ivory bust, an elk poached by wildlife authorities, and three tortoises in a plastic bag.
    — National Geographic, 17 July 2016
  • The group is trying to raise awareness with the blotter, which shows the animal, victim, date of the attack and ZIP code where the attack took place, as well as other details.
    — Fox News, 21 Feb. 2020
  • Check out the latest musings from the Nevada County police blotter in The Union newspaper.
    — Megan Diskin, USA TODAY, 2 Oct. 2020
  • For at least a decade, the local newspaper has included the arrests in its daily police blotter for all to see.
    — Jennifer Smith Richards and Jodi S. Cohen, Chicago Tribune, 17 Dec. 2022
  • Inside the house was mustard wall-to-wall carpeting and a gigantic Maitland-Smith desk with an ink blotter.
    — Lizzie Feidelson, The New Yorker, 7 Jan. 2022
  • White Album on some orange Owsley or orange sunshine or some blotter.
    — Los Angeles Times, 8 Mar. 2022
  • If arrested, a person’s name, age, address and crime would be published as part of the police blotter in most local newspapers across the U.S.
    — Chad Painter, The Conversation, 19 June 2019
  • Some of Alabama's most bizarre stories come from the halls of political power, some from the police blotter.
    — AL.com, 20 Dec. 2017
  • The plan is to publish an in-depth article every weekday while skipping some of the staples of local papers, like high school sports and a police blotter.
    — Katharine Q. Seelye, Star Tribune, 27 June 2021
  • Shouldn’t the octogenarian hang up his quill and ink blotter?
    — Washington Post, 24 Sep. 2021
  • Little papers were once part of the farm system for larger papers; greenhorns learned how to read a police blotter before stepping up to the next rung on the media ladder.
    — Washington Post, 30 Jan. 2020
  • The incident was listed in Metro’s daily police blotter the day after it was reported.
    — Faiz Siddiqui, Washington Post, 25 Apr. 2017
  • The arrest took place last Wednesday, according to the department’s police blotter.
    — Khari Thompson, BostonGlobe.com, 25 July 2023
  • There was something about the item on the police blotter that puzzled Larry Hobbs, a former farmhand and store clerk turned local newspaper reporter.
    — Patrik Jonsson, The Christian Science Monitor, 12 Apr. 2021
  • Second implication: All journalism should sound as if it’s been lifted off the blotter of the police reports.
    — Vogue, 15 May 2018
  • Here is a sampling of lesser-known — but no less noteworthy — incidents from police log books (a.k.a. blotters) in our suburbs.
    — Emily Sweeney, BostonGlobe.com, 17 Mar. 2023
  • Two people were taken to the hospital, a 75-year-old man who was stabbed in the neck and a 77-year-old man who was stabbed in the back, according to a blotter post on the Seattle Police Department's official blog.
    — Jordan Culver, USA TODAY, 9 July 2019
  • This is the history of the special grand jury, from the period leading up to its start to the panel’s secret meetings in Broward and progress reports, to the appearance of Runcie and Myrick on the jail booking blotter.
    — Scott Travis, sun-sentinel.com, 22 Apr. 2021
  • Guglielmi said police are exploring ways to bring back the blotter minus names and other details that won’t run afoul of county policy.
    — Washington Post, 28 Sep. 2021
  • According to the game wardens blotter, during the course of the quail hunt on a property in Jim Hogg County, Maria had chased an injured bird through a thicket and didn't return, which worried her owners.
    — Jay R. Jordan, Chron, 21 Mar. 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'blotter.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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