spotting

Pluralspottings (some meanings)

1. 1
   noununcountable

   The act of noticing or catching sight of something, especially something difficult to detect.

   Accurate spotting of enemy aircraft was a vital task for wartime observers.

   The ranger praised the volunteer's spotting of a nesting pair near the cliff.

   Similardetection, sighting, identification, observation

   Note

   An observer's word, and a countable one: each spotting is a single sighting. "Close Air Support and the Battle for Khe Sanh" (2009) weighs "visual spottings" of hidden artillery against electronic intercepts. That pairing shows the noun's natural home, which is reconnaissance, where seeing with the eye is one method set beside others.

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle of spot.

   The scout spent the afternoon spotting deer along the ridge.

   Investigators kept spotting inconsistencies in the witness statements.

   Note

   The -ing form carries every meaning of the verb spot, not only the seeing one. It can mean staining or speckling a surface. In US slang it means lending a small sum, with two objects: spotting a friend twenty dollars. In some dialects it describes the first scattered drops of rain. As a gerund it shades easily into the noun for a sighting.

3. 3
   noununcountable

   Light discharge of blood from the vagina occurring at a time outside one's usual menstrual period.

   The doctor explained that occasional spotting between periods is rarely serious.

   Mid-cycle spotting prompted her to schedule a routine checkup.

   Note

   In medical and pregnancy writing it is usually a mass noun, graded by amount rather than counted. Heidi Murkoff and Sharon Mazel's What to Expect When You're Expecting (2008) speaks of "light to heavy spotting" caused by subchorionic bleeding. Adjectives of degree are its usual company. Unlike the sighting sense, it rarely takes an article.

4. 4
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A pattern consisting of spots or dots across a surface.

   The breeder prized the foal for the fine spotting across its flanks.

   Tarnish left a faint spotting over the polished silver tray.

   Similarspeckling, mottling, dappling

   Note

   Gardeners use it countably for the marks disease leaves on plants. Thomas H. Everett's The American Gardener's Book of Bulbs (1954) names "various foliage spottings and blotchings" among the symptoms. The plural treats each spotted patch as its own instance, and the word pairs naturally with blotching, which names larger, less regular marks.

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