dapple

• (UK) IPA^(key): [ˈdæpəɫ]
• Rhymes: -æpəl

dapple (plural dapples)

1. A mottled marking, usually in clusters.
2. An animal with a mottled or spotted skin or coat.
   • 1800, Samuel Taylor Coleridge tr., Friedrich von Schiller, The Death of Wallenstein, 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:

     A Sarronnese officer whom he did not know was leading a riderless horse, a dapple.

   • 2004, D Caroline Coile,

     Some well-intentioned breeders inadvertently breed two dapples together because occasionally a dapple will have so few patches of mottled coloration it appears undappled.

dapple (comparative more dapple, superlative most dapple)

1. Having a mottled or spotted skin or coat, dappled.

   a dapple horse

   • Sir Walter Scott

     Some dapple mists still floated along the peaks.

dapple (third-person singular simple present dapples, present participle dappling, simple past and past participle dappled)

1. To mark or become marked with mottling or spots.
   • 2006, Ace Edmonds, Bands, Part 2‎:

     Kris awoke with a start. Sweat dappled his forehead, and he brushed it away.

• lapped, palped