blob

name

1. The section of the elite class in Washington D.C. who have moved from political or regulatory work to lobbying firms or think tanks, especially in foreign policy or on the behalf of corporations.
2. The civil service and other public bodies, perceived as prone to groupthink and acting as an obstacle to government action; the deep state.

   “Mr Cummings explains his loathing for the blob in his long and entertaining blog. He argues that it is made up of “grotesque incompetents”[…]”

   “Rising numbers of Tory MPs believe that Truss was the first prime minister to be intentionally deposed by the 'Blob' — the increasingly partisan quangocrats, civil servants and other key figures in Left-leaning institutions who seem determined to undermine the elected government.”

3. A large mass of relatively warm water in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of North America that was detected in 2013 and continued to spread throughout 2014 and 2015.

noun

Etymology: Formed as a backronym. See Object storage#Origins.

1. Acronym of binary large object.

   “I've added a BLOB so that we can store pictures.”

verb

Etymology: From Middle English *blob (“attested in blobby”). Possibly onomatopoeic, similarly to bleb and blubber.

1. To splash in the form of a blob or blobs.

   “Bones put the tiny crimson speck between his slides, blobbed a drop of oil on top, and focused the microscope.”

   “[…] a cross has been burned during the night on Wechsler's lawn and a painted KKK blobbed across one wall of his home.”

2. To drop a blob or blobs onto; to cover with blobs.

   “She was beating something in a pail, beating it with her hands; her arms were blobbed with pink froth to the elbows.”

   “Asked to do a mural in the coffee room of the Municipal Museum, Appel responded by blobbing all four walls and the ceiling with brilliant colors […]”

3. To fall in the form of a blob or blobs.

   “Caroline began to separate eggs, cracking them into unbelievably even halves, sliding the gold, round and elastic, from shell to shell, whilst the white hung, heavy, translucent, in thick sheets, and blobbed suddenly into her basin.”

   “2013, Marcus Berkmann, "Blood and gore of the real 'who dunnits'," Review of Silent Witnesses by Nigel McCrery, Daily Mail, 22 August, 2013, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/books/article-2400118/Blood-gore-real-dunnits-SILENT-WITNESSES-BY-NIGEL-MCCRERY.html […] whether the blood has splashed, or blobbed, or trickled, can reveal whether the victim was killed here or moved afterwards.”

4. To spill sauce on oneself while eating.
5. To relax idly and mindlessly; to veg out.
6. To catch eels by means of worms strung on a thread.

   “[…] where he had surreptitiously tickled small trout, or openly "blobbed" for eels with worms threaded on to darning wool when the rains came, […]”