Word Confusion: Dabble versus Dapple

It’s another word confusion that’s confusing me, this dabble vs dapple.

When I read “ripped to shreds and dabbled with blood”. I’d interpret this . . . no, no, I can’t make heads nor tails of this.

Ya see, dabble is a verb meaning to casually undertake an activity. It’s not a noun. It’s not an adjective.

Dapple, on the other hand, is an adjective, a noun, and both an intransitive and a transitive verb meaning “marked with spots”.

Both phrases, “ripped to shreds” followed by “dabbled with blood”, are attributive adjective phrases, i.e., dappled with blood would mean it was spotted with blood.

Word Confusions . . .

. . . started as my way of dealing with a professional frustration with properly spelled words that were out of context in manuscripts I was editing as well as books I was reviewing. It evolved into a sharing of information with y’all. I’m hoping you’ll share with us words that have been a bête noire for you from either end.

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Dabble	Dapple
Dabble Dabble by Kurt Bauschardt is under the CC BY-SA 2.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons.	Lipizzaner by David Monniaux is under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. — A dapple gray horse.
Part of Grammar:
Verb, intransitive & transitive Third person present verb: dabbles Past tense or past participle: dabbled Present participle: dabbling	Adjective; Noun; Verb, intransitive & transitive Plural for the noun: dapples Gerund: dappling Third person present verb: dapples Past tense or past participle: dappled Present participle: dappling
Verb, intransitive: [Of a duck or other waterbird] Move the bill around in shallow water while feeding Take part in an activity in a casual or superficial way Verb, transitive: Immerse (one’s hands or feet) partially in water and move them around gently Move up and down repeatedly Play in or as if in water, as of small children	Adjective: [Colors] Marked with dapples or spots Noun: A patch or spot of color or light An animal whose coat is marked with patches or spots Verb, intransitive: To mark or become marked with spots of a different shade or color from the background Verb, transitive: [Usually be dappled] To mark or become marked with spots of a different shade or color from the background
Examples:
Verb, intransitive: Teal like to dabble in the shallows. He dabbled in writing as a young man. “The restaurant business entails more than … dabbling in interior design.” – Andy Birsh “I guess I’m probably alone at dabbling this Afternoon but I’d imagine a good few folk will be joining me as they kick back for the weekend . . .” (Chatative). Verb, transitive: They dabbled their feet in the rock pools. Her rucksack dabbled gently on her back. “The moon hung over the harbor dabbling the waves with gold” (Holmes). The kids dabbled their hands and feet in the pool.	Adjective: Mom, Mary Brown got a dapple pony for her birthday! “The dapple grays were fat, well-fed beasts, and the coachman was old and rheumatic” (Morrison). “In press dispatches and news analysis pieces, the stately old Southern order is evoked with scenes of dappled sunlight under Spanish moss–draped oak trees” (Bowers). Noun: The clouds threw dapples of shadow over the eerily quiet street. “Gleaming spots caused by methane ice clouds in the planet’s atmosphere dapple its lower half” (Moskowitz). “Piglet is a Chihuahua-dachshund mix, with a genetic condition called double dapple that causes eyesight and hearing difficulties” (Dunne). Verb, intransitive: The floor was dappled with pale moonlight. The sun was dappling through the trees. “Tiffany also exploited the abstract, mottled effects of molten glass to evoke the textures of foliage and a sky softly dappled with clouds” (Litt). Verb, transitive: The cat was at the kitchen door, alert, a shaft of sunlight dappling the stripes of his back. “Pink natural light dapples a river in one composition, while reflections of house lamps streak a dark lake in another” (Jenkins). “Here there are no mossy rocks or sheltering trees to dapple the scene with their brightness and shadow” (Various). Sunlight dappled the canopy of vines over our heads.
Derivatives:
Adverb: dabbingly Noun: dabbler, dabbing, dabbling Verb: dab	Adjective: dappled
History of the Word:
Mid-16th century, from the obsolete Dutch dabbelen, or a frequentative of the verb dab.	Late 16th century (earlier as an adjective), perhaps related to the Old Norse depill meaning spot.

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C’mon, get it out of your system, bitch, whine, moan . . . which words are your pet peeves? Also, please note that I try to be as accurate as I can, but mistakes happen or I miss something. Email me if you find errors, so I can fix them . . . and we’ll all benefit!

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Resources for Dabble versus Dapple

Some of these links may be affiliate links, and I will earn a small percentage, if you should buy it. It does not affect the price you pay.

Apple Dictionary.com

Bowers, Paul. “How Lindsey Graham Could Lose in 2020.” The New Republic. 16 Mar 2020. Web. 6 Jan 2023. <https://newrepublic.com/article/156874/lindsey-graham-lose-2020>. Article.

Chatative. “The EADD I’m Fucked Megathread — We Don’t Even Know What Day it is.” Bluelight. 21 Mar 2014. Web. 6 Jan 2023. <https://bluelight.org/xf/threads/the-eadd-im-fucked-megathread-we-dont-even-know-what-day-it-is.714362/page-8>.

Cambridge Dictionary: dapple

Dictionary.com: dapple

Dunne, Susan. “Piglet — a Pink, Blind and Deaf Pup — Uses His Social-Media Stardom to Teach Connecticut Kids about Disabilities, Inclusion.” Hartford Courant. 29 Jan 2022. Web. 6 Jan 2023. <https://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-news-pink-dog-piglet-20220129-aejtyedsofepjbji3qpvfx6fge-story.html>. Article.

The Free Dictionary: dabble, dapple

Holmes, Tom. “Katherine Mansfield as Literary Fauvist.” The Opiate. Issuu.com. Fall 2015. vol 3. Web. 6 Jan 2023. <https://issuu.com/theopiatemagazine/docs/the_opiate_vol3/s/11637567>.

Jenkins, Mark. “In the Galleries: Artists pair up to create a third identity, or when 1+1 equals one.” The Washington Post. 19 Nov 2021. Web. 6 Jan 2023. <https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/museums/art-gallery-shows-dc-area/2021/11/17/958495cc-43e3-11ec-a88e-2aa4632af69b_story.html>. Article.

Litt, Steven. “Tiffany Lamp Show at Cleveland Museum of Art Brightens Dark Time of Year.” Cleveland.com. 12 Jan 2020. Web. 6 Jan 2023. <https://www.cleveland.com/arts/2019/12/tiffany-lamp-show-at-cleveland-museum-of-art-brightens-dark-time-of-year.html&gr;. Article.

Merriam-Webster: dapple

Morrison, Gertrude W. The Girls of Central High on the Stage: The Play That Took The Prize. 2011. <https://amzn.to/3QncoZM>. Ebook.

Moskowitz, Clara. “The Best of JWST’s Cosmic Portraits.” Astronomy. Scientific American. 17 Nov 2022. Web. 6 Jan 2023. <https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-best-of-jwsts-cosmic-portraits/>. Article.

Various. “The Rivers of Great Britain: Rivers of the East Coast.” Project Gutenberg, 2014. <https://www.gutenberg.org/files/47726/47726-h/47726-h.htm>. Ebook.

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Pinterest Photo Credits:

Kingswood Common by Derek Harper is under the CC BY-SA 2.0 license, via Wikimedia Commons. Girl Child Playing in Sand by mi pham is in the public domain, via NegativeSpace.