dapple

[ˈdæpəɫ]

dapple noun: a mottled marking, usually in clusters.

Noun

dapple (plural dapples)

A mottled marking, usually in clusters.
An animal with a mottled or spotted skin or coat.
- “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.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=9x8UPZTbcIMkCO...
- A Sarronnese officer whom he did not know was leading a riderless horse, a dapple.1996, L E Modesitt, The Order War

Adjective

dapple (comparative more dapple, superlative most dapple)

Having a mottled or spotted skin or coat, dappled.
- Some dapple mists still floated along the peaks.1815 February 24, [Walter Scott], Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown...
- I was on a running Morgan that could leave anything in six counties behind, and all she had was that short-hocked dapple pony.1984, Dan Parkinson, Gunpowder Glory, page 103

Verb

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

To mark or become marked with mottling or spots.
- Jt ſeemes it is in faſhion vvith you to ſugar your papers vvith Carnation phraſes, and dapple your ſpeeches vvith nevv quodled vvords.1647, Theodore de la Guard [pseudonym; Nathaniel Ward], The Simple Cobler of Aggawam in America. […], London: […] J[ohn] D[ever] & R[obert] I[bbitson] for Stephen Bowtell, […], →OCLC, page 77
- dappling black on white with uneven strokes1971, Gwen White, Antique Toys And Their Background, page 75

dapple meaning in Urdu, Malayalam, Kannada and Arabic

dapple in Malayalam

spot, dot, fleck: ചിത്രവർണ്ണമാക്കുക, പുള്ളികളിടുക, വർണ്ണപ്പൊട്ടുകളിടുക, പുള്ളികളുണ്ടാക്കുക, കുത്തുകളിടുക, പുള്ളികുത്തുക

dapple in Arabic

having a spotted skin or coat: أَبْرَش ʔabraš

Forms of dapple

Noun
plural	dapples
Adjective
comparative	more dapple
superlative	most dapple
Verb
third-person singular present	dapples
present participle	dappling
past participle	dappled
past	dappled

Origin of dapple

Uncertain. The adjective is first attested circa 1550 though the first element is already attested in dapple-grey as early as 1386, in Middle English, and later as dappled circa 1400; the OED suggests either: * a back-formation from dapple-grey, itself a variant of apple-grey, compare possible cognates all said of horses: Old Norse apalgrár (whence Norwegian abildgrå and Swedish apel-grå), German apfelgrau. Compare also French pommelé (“dappled”), from pomme (“an apple”); or, * a relation with Icelandic depill (“a dot, spot”). The noun and verb are both later attested likely as back-formations.

Words formed from dapple

Phrases with dapple

Words that rhyme with dapple

Questions about dapple

What does dapple mean?: Dapple means a mottled marking, usually in clusters.
What is dapple in Urdu?: Dapple in Urdu is دھبےدار. See Dapple meaning in Urdu.
What part of speech is dapple?: Dapple can be a noun, an adjective or a verb.
How do you pronounce dapple?: Dapple is pronounced [ˈdæpəɫ] (UK).
What is the plural of dapple?: The plural of dapple is dapples.

Words near dapple in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: dapple (page history and authors); dapple (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); dapple (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); dapple (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-dapple.wav.

Cite this entry: “dapple.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dapple. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.