Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To dabble with moisture; make wet: as, “bedabbled with the dew,”

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To dabble; to sprinkle or wet.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To dabble about or all over with moisture; make something wet by sprinkling or spattering water, paint, or other liquid on it.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From be- +‎ dabble.

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Examples

  • A kitten, attracted by the odor of milk, had established itself upon the table; it allowed Pauline to bedabble it in coffee; she was playing merrily with it, taking away the cream that she had just allowed the kitten to sniff at, so as to exercise its patience, and keep up the contest.

    The Magic Skin 2007

  • Take heed lest a better man than Irus rise up presently against thee, to lay his mighty hands about thy head and bedabble thee with blood, and send thee hence from the house.

    Book XVIII Homer 1909

  • Take heed lest a better man than Irus rise up presently against thee, to lay his mighty hands about thy head and bedabble thee with blood, and send thee hence from the house. '

    The Odyssey 750? BC-650? BC Homer 1878

  • A kitten, attracted by the odor of milk, had established itself upon the table; it allowed Pauline to bedabble it in coffee; she was playing merrily with it, taking away the cream that she had just allowed the kitten to sniff at, so as to exercise its patience, and keep up the contest.

    The Magic Skin Honor�� de Balzac 1824

Comments

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  • He looked down on the wet tablecloth and the two halves of the vase lying in the bedabbled leaves...

    - Rebecca West, The Judge

    September 12, 2009