DAPPLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does dapple mean? 

• DAPPLE (noun)
  The noun DAPPLE has 1 sense:

1. a small contrasting part of something

  Familiarity information: DAPPLE used as a noun is very rare.

• DAPPLE (verb)
  The verb DAPPLE has 1 sense:

1. colour with streaks or blotches of different shades

  Familiarity information: DAPPLE used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DAPPLE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A small contrasting part of something

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

dapple; fleck; maculation; patch; speckle; spot

Context example:

a fleck of red

Hypernyms ("dapple" is a kind of...):

marking (a pattern of marks)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "dapple"):

pinpoint; speck (a very small spot)

nebula ((pathology) a faint cloudy spot on the cornea)

splash (a patch of bright color)

fret; worn spot (a spot that has been worn away by abrasion or erosion)

plaque ((pathology) a small abnormal patch on or inside the body)

macula; macule (a patch of skin that is discolored but not usually elevated; caused by various diseases)

mock sun; parhelion; sundog (a bright spot on the parhelic circle; caused by diffraction by ice crystals)

macula; sunspot (a cooler darker spot appearing periodically on the sun's photosphere; associated with a strong magnetic field)

facula; solar facula (a large bright spot on the sun's photosphere occurring most frequently in the vicinity of sunspots)

facula (a bright spot on a planet)

Derivation:

dapple (colour with streaks or blotches of different shades)

• DAPPLE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they dapple    ... he / she / it dapples   
Past simple: dappled   
Past participle: dappled   
-ing form: dappling   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Colour with streaks or blotches of different shades

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

cloud; dapple; mottle

Hypernyms (to "dapple" is one way to...):

spot (mark with a spot or spots so as to allow easy recognition)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "dapple"):

harlequin (variegate with spots or marks)

speckle; stipple (produce a mottled effect)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

dapple (a small contrasting part of something)

 Context examples 

But the first, who was a dapple gray, observing me to steal off, neighed after me in so expressive a tone, that I fancied myself to understand what he meant; whereupon I turned back, and came near to him to expect his farther commands: but concealing my fear as much as I could, for I began to be in some pain how this adventure might terminate; and the reader will easily believe I did not much like my present situation.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

They were fresh now as a succession of April showers and gleams, followed by a lovely spring morning, could make them: the sun was just entering the dappled east, and his light illumined the wreathed and dewy orchard trees and shone down the quiet walks under them.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)