blot on the escutcheon

English

Alternative forms

Noun

blot on the escutcheon (plural blots on the escutcheon or blots on escutcheons)

  1. (idiomatic) Something damaging to one's reputation.
    • 1819, Mathew Carey, chapter 6, in Vindiciæ Hibernicæ: or, Ireland Vindicated‎[1], Philadelphia: self-published, page 164:
      The most zealous advocates of the unfortunate monarch cannot deny that this is an indelible blot on his escutcheon.
    • 1971, G. U. Ellis, chapter 6, in Thackeray‎[2], New York: Haskell House, page 95:
      He had been commissioned by Chapman & Hall to write another Christmas book—The Kickleburys on the Rhine—had received an advance payment, and with it had removed the last blot from his stepfather’s escutcheon by paying off the last instalment of his debt.
    • 1984, Kathleen Hall Jamieson, chapter 8, in Packaging the Presidency‎[3], 3rd edition, Oxford University Press, published 1996:
      Consequently, where the pardon became a convenient punching bag among contending Democrats, it was no blot on Ford’s escutcheon in the primary contest between Ford and Reagan.

See also

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