divot

Meanings

1. A torn-up piece of turf, especially by a golf club in making a stroke or by a horse's hoof.
2. A disruption in an otherwise smooth contour.
3. A drop in a graph between two linear portions (example)

1. To tear up pieces of turf from, especially with a golf club in making a stroke.

Etymology

1530s, Scots divot (“turf”), also spelt devat, diffat, and the earliest form (1435), duvat(e), from Scottish Gaelic dubhad, a reduced form of dubh-fhàd, literally “black sod” (compare fàl (“turf, sod”)).