Dapple
Origin
Full definition of dapple
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_Oi5gjrhFItbDCt0A 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=5r0UWTYWxGcZayQlGiP4v3b1ajUSome well-intentioned breeders inadvertently breed two dapples together because occasionally a dapple will have so few patches of mottled coloration it appears undappled.
Adjective
- Having a mottled or spotted skin or coat, dappled.a dapple horse
- Sir Walter ScottSome dapple mists still floated along the peaks.
Verb
- To mark or become marked with mottling or spots.
