Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Mottled or spotted marking, as on a horse's coat.
  • noun An individual spot.
  • noun An animal with a mottled or spotted skin or coat.
  • transitive verb To mark or mottle with spots.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A spot; a dot; one of a number of various spots, as on an animal's skin or coat.
  • noun A dappled horse.
  • Marked with spots; spotted; variegated with spots of different colors or shades of color: as, a dapple horse.
  • To spot; variegate with spots.

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

  • transitive verb To variegate with spots; to spot.
  • adjective Marked with spots of different shades of color; spotted; variegated.
  • noun One of the spots on a dappled animal.

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

  • noun A mottled marking, usually in clusters.
  • noun An animal with a mottled or spotted skin or coat.
  • adjective Having a mottled or spotted skin or coat, dappled.
  • verb To mark or become marked with mottling or spots.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a small contrasting part of something
  • verb colour with streaks or blotches of different shades

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Back-formation from dappled.]

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Examples

  • -- [MS.M. erased.] [440] [For the use of "dapple" as an intransitive verb, compare

    The Works of Lord Byron. Vol. 4 George Gordon Byron Byron 1806

  • With the right car, getting the sun to dapple your interior, the wind to blow through your hair and every other convertible cliché, is painless.

    Get a Practical...Convertible? Kevin Sintumuang 2011

  • They know him so well that at times they find it hard to distinguish where they end and Kenny begins, and will often simply lie around with Kenny in their shared Parisian loft apartment making enigmatic remarks and watching the sunlight dapple their skin as they bask in the intoxicating flush of intimacy.

    Has Kenny Dalglish taken Liverpool as far as he can?| Barney Ronay 2011

  • They know him so well that at times they find it hard to distinguish where they end and Kenny begins, and will often simply lie around with Kenny in their shared Parisian loft apartment making enigmatic remarks and watching the sunlight dapple their skin as they bask in the intoxicating flush of intimacy.

    Has Kenny Dalglish taken Liverpool as far as he can?| Barney Ronay 2011

  • What sodden indistinction just an hour ago had all but persuaded us not to regret resumes its first divisions: slate from cinder, ash from smoke, warm dapple-gray from moleskin, dove - from

    Varenna 2010

  • A pleasant dapple of sunlight peers through the blinds.

    Paul Dailing: Disney Gives Mothers an Offer They Can't Refuse: A Passion Play Paul Dailing 2011

  • What sodden indistinction just an hour ago had all but persuaded us not to regret resumes its first divisions: slate from cinder, ash from smoke, warm dapple-gray from moleskin, dove - from

    Varenna 2010

  • And that might have been the start of my career on ice if not for a certain dapple gray Arabian horse-cross Shetland pony named Shadow no relation to my cat.

    Welcome to My World Johnny Weir 2011

  • What sodden indistinction just an hour ago had all but persuaded us not to regret resumes its first divisions: slate from cinder, ash from smoke, warm dapple-gray from moleskin, dove - from

    Varenna 2010

  • And that might have been the start of my career on ice if not for a certain dapple gray Arabian horse-cross Shetland pony named Shadow no relation to my cat.

    Welcome to My World Johnny Weir 2011

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