Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A piece of turf torn up by a golf club in striking a ball, or by a horse's hoof.
- noun Scots A thin square of turf or sod used for roofing.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In golf, a piece of turf cut out with a club in playing a stroke.
- noun A piece of turf; a square sod, of a kind used to cover roofs, build outhouses, etc.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun Scot. A thin, oblong turf used for covering cottages, and also for fuel.
- noun (Golf) a small piece of turf gouged out of the ground by the head of a golf club when making a stroke.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A torn up piece of
turf (e.g. by a golf club in making a stroke or by a horse's hoof).
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun (golf) the cavity left when a piece of turf is cut from the ground by the club head in making a stroke
- noun a piece of turf dug out of a lawn or fairway (by an animals hooves or a golf club)
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
Support
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Examples
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The ball-mark repair tool (often incorrectly called a divot-repair tool), has been around for decades and is iconic for many golfers.
Tearing Up the Green Timothy J. Carroll 2007
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Gulley said there was a bleeding "divot" in his head likely caused by fallen ceiling matter.
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Gulley said there was a bleeding "divot" in his head likely caused by fallen ceiling matter.
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The second time, Villegas walked over and casually swatted away some loose pieces of grass in front of the divot as the ball was still moving down the slope.
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That didn't apply in this case because the ball was clearly coming down the steep slope toward his divot.
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Everyone replaces his divot after a perfect approach shot.
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About 2 hours ago: "I think he wore an earring at some point, you could see the little divot in his earlobe — how long ago and why?"
November 2009 2009
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Granderson then stood up, replaced the divot he tore out of the Fenway outfield and trotted back to the dugout as Burnett applauded gratefully.
Shockingly, A.J. Shuts Down the Sox Daniel Barbarisi 2011
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That didn't apply in this case because the ball was clearly coming down the steep slope toward his divot.
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The second time, Villegas walked over and casually swatted away some loose pieces of grass in front of the divot as the ball was still moving down the slope.
billprice commented on the word divot
Out in the wild, this word is being used to mean a scratch or shallow trough (on any surface), or else the material removed to create such a depression. I looked it up today because "divot" was the word that popped into my mind to describe a depressed feature on a vertical column, and I realized I had no idea what the literal definition of the word was.
Example usages I googled up:
"I came home and read some Alain Badiou, sinking into the divot I'd worked into the couch."
"The catalyst that created this working forum of service leaders is a challenge we define as the 'sales divot.'"
"Last night I noticed there is a divot in the enamel in my front tooth."
April 17, 2010
practik commented on the word divot
I’ve always understood divot to refer to an indentation (as billprice notes in his comment below) and was surprised to discover today that Webster’s, Oxford, and American Heritage all define it as the stuff removed from an indentation. I notice that all the non-golf examples listed on this page use it to refer to indentations as well – I’ll copy a few here in case Wordnik replaces them sometime in the future:
“About 2 hours ago: ‘I think he wore an earring at some point, you could see the little divot in his earlobe — how long ago and why?’”
http://www.omnivoracious.com/2009/11/
“But as McDonagh followed through on his shot, the toe of his left skate lodged in a divot, and he crumpled to the ice with what seemed a serious leg injury.”
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204883304577219550673612814.html
“He placed the first trap in the divot, sprinkling enough snow over top that the Indian would not be able to see it if he was moving with any speed.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/08/narrative-magazine-alexi-zentner_n_754548.html
A couple of the examples in that list also acknowledge the shift in meaning, even if they don’t agree with it:
“The ball-mark repair tool (often incorrectly called a divot-repair tool), has been around for decades and is iconic for many golfers.”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB119222433187357701
“Gulley said there was a bleeding ‘divot’ in his head likely caused by fallen ceiling matter.”
http://www.summitdaily.com/article/20100117/NEWS/100119809/1096/rss
Finally, a few more examples I collected today – including a golf one:
“The bump might have a single hair coming out of it, Dr. Georgopoulos says, as well as a tiny divot.”
https://www.self.com/story/dermoid-cysts
“But recurring pain in mid-October prompted Morrow to undergo a CT scan, which revealed ‘a divot in the bone that you can’t see on the MRI,’ Morrow said.”
https://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/cubs/ct-spt-cubs-spring-training-joe-maddon-yu-darvish-20190213-story.html
“A day after an astonishing temper tantrum in a bunker, he vandalized five greens, one so badly that he left a divot in the putting surface.”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/golf/article-6702647/Sergio-Garcia-opens-Saudi-Arabia-meltdown.html
February 19, 2019
alexz commented on the word divot
I've seen this spelled divit
February 19, 2019