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Dapple vs Dabble - What's the difference?

dapple | dabble |

As verbs the difference between dapple and dabble

is that dapple is to mark or become marked with mottling or spots while dabble is to partially wet (something) by splashing or dipping; connotes playfulness.

As a noun dapple

is a mottled marking, usually in clusters.

As an adjective dapple

is having a mottled or spotted skin or coat, dappled.

dapple

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A mottled marking, usually in clusters.
  • An animal with a mottled or spotted skin or coat.
  • * 1800, Samuel Taylor Coleridge tr., Friedrich von Schiller, The Death of Wallenstein, [http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&vid=ISBN1419158775&id=bXOEL5RL6DsC&pg=PA64&lpg=PA64&sig=9x8UPZTbcIMkCOkMCSHT1YEwX9M] 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 [http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&vid=ISBN0812534042&id=K4n7-n83mkoC&pg=PA141&lpg=PA141&sig=6jDsciCT-04_Oi5gjrhFItbDCt0]
    • A Sarronnese officer whom he did not know was leading a riderless horse, a dapple .
  • * 2004, D Caroline Coile, [http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&vid=ISBN0764126733&id=vmTgPakg8nUC&pg=PA21&lpg=PA21&sig=5r0UWTYWxGcZayQlGiP4v3b1ajU]
    • Some well-intentioned breeders inadvertently breed two dapples' together because occasionally a ' dapple will have so few patches of mottled coloration it appears undappled.

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Having a mottled or spotted skin or coat, dappled.
    • a dapple horse
  • * Sir Walter Scott
    • Some dapple mists still floated along the peaks.

    Verb

    (dappl)
  • To mark or become marked with mottling or spots.
  • * 2006, Ace Edmonds, Bands, Part 2 [http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/26085436/]
    • Kris awoke with a start. Sweat dappled his forehead, and he brushed it away.

    Anagrams

    *

    dabble

    English

    Verb

    (en-verb)
  • To partially wet (something) by splashing or dipping; connotes playfulness.
    • The children sat on the dock and dabbled their feet in the water.
  • To participate or have an interest in an activity, but in a casual or superficial way.
    • She's an actress by trade, but has been known to dabble in poetry.

    Derived terms

    * dabble in * dabbler

    See also

    * dribble