dapple Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun a small contrasting part of something
    speckle; spot; patch; maculation; fleck.
    • a bald spot
    • a leopard's spots
    • a patch of clouds
    • patches of thin ice
    • a fleck of red
  2. verb colour with streaks or blotches of different shades
    cloud; mottle.

WordNet

Dap"ple noun
Etymology
Cf. Icel. depill a spot, a dot, a dog with spots over the eyes, dapi a pool, and E. dimple.
Definitions
  1. One of the spots on a dappled animal.
    He has . . . as many eyes on his body as my gray mare hath dapples. Sir P. Sidney.
Dap"ple, Dap"pled adjective (Also<
  • Dapple
  • Dappled
)
Definitions
  1. Marked with spots of different shades of color; spotted; variegated; as, a dapple horse.
    Some dapple mists still floated along the peaks. Sir W. Scott.
    ✍ The word is used in composition to denote that some color is variegated or marked with spots; as, dapple-bay; dapple-gray.
    His steed was all dapple-gray. Chaucer.
    O, swiftly can speed my dapple-gray steed. Sir W. Scott.
Dap"ple transitive verb
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Dappled ; present participle & verbal noun Dappling
Definitions
  1. To variegate with spots; to spot.
    The gentle day, . . . Dapples the drowsy east with spots of gray. Shak.
    The dappled pink and blushing rose. Prior.

Webster 1913