marbling

Verb

marble (third-person singular simple present marbles, present participle marbling, simple past and past participle marbled)

1. (transitive) To cause (something to have) the streaked or swirled appearance of certain types of marble, for example by mixing viscous ingredients incompletely, or by applying paint or other colorants unevenly.
   • The small clouds which chequered the sky, as they passed along, spread their flitting shadows on the distant mountains, and seemed to marble them; a beauty which I do not recollect has struck any painter.1774, William Hutchinson, An excursion to the lakes in Westmoreland and Cumberland, August, 1773, page 29

   Synonyms:

   marbleize

2. (intransitive) To get or have the streaked or swirled appearance of certain types of marble, for example due to the incomplete mixing of viscous ingredients, or the uneven application of paint or other colorants.
   • Scent the entire batch and then color half with the blue colorant. Pour both parts back into your soap pot. Do not stir. Pour in a circular motion into a block mold. The pouring action will cause the soap to marble.2007, Alicia Grosso, The Everything Soapmaking Book: Recipes and Techniques, page 125
3. (transitive) To cause meat, usually beef, pork, or lamb, to be interlaced with fat so that its appearance resembles that of marble.
   • Their flesh is soft (tender), and they throw a portion of their fat among the lean so as to marble it. The beef is of a better quality and they take on fat much easier.1848, Samuel D. Martin, in a letter to the Albany Cultivator, quoted in the Fourteenth Annual Report of the Ohio State Board of Agriculture (for the year 1859; published 1860), page 157

   Synonyms:

   marbleize

4. (intransitive, especially beef) To become interlaced with fat; (of fat) to interlace through meat.
   • We've gone mostly to black bulls — Angus bulls because today the packers like black cattle. They seem to marble better.1999, Kathleen Jo Ryan, Deep in the heart of Texas: Texas ranchers in their own words, page 99
5. (broadly, figuratively) To lace or be laced throughout.
   • Was he the reason for the bitterness that seemed to marble her character?1993, Susan Napier, Winter of Dreams, page 52

See all 13 meanings of marble