English

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Etymology

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(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

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Noun

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dapple (plural dapples)

  1. A mottled marking, usually in clusters.
  2. An animal with a mottled or spotted skin or coat.
    • 1800, Samuel Taylor Coleridge tr., Friedrich von Schiller, The Death of Wallenstein, [1] 2004
      “My brother,” said he, “do not ride to–day / The dapple, as you’re wont; but mount the horse / Which I have chosen for thee.
    • 1996, L E Modesitt, The Order War[2]:
      A Sarronnese officer whom he did not know was leading a riderless horse, a dapple.
    • 2004, D Caroline Coile, [3]
      Some well-intentioned breeders inadvertently breed two dapples together because occasionally a dapple will have so few patches of mottled coloration it appears undappled.

Translations

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Adjective

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dapple (comparative more dapple, superlative most dapple)

  1. Having a mottled or spotted skin or coat, dappled.

Translations

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Verb

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dapple (third-person singular simple present dapples, present participle dappling, simple past and past participle dappled)

  1. To mark or become marked with mottling or spots.
    • 1647, Theodore de la Guard [pseudonym; Nathaniel Ward], The Simple Cobler of Aggawam in America. [], London: [] J[ohn] D[ever] & R[obert] I[bbitson] for Stephen Bowtell, [], →OCLC, page 77:
      Jt ſeemes it is in faſhion vvith you to ſugar your papers vvith Carnation phraſes, and dapple your ſpeeches vvith nevv quodled vvords.
      A figurative use.
    • 1971, Gwen White, Antique Toys And Their Background, page 75:
      dappling black on white with uneven strokes
    • 2006, Ace Edmonds, Bands, Part 2[4]:
      Kris awoke with a start. Sweat dappled his forehead, and he brushed it away.

Translations

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Anagrams

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