dabble
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈdæb.əl/
ipa: [ˈdæb.l̩]
ipa: /ˈdæb.əl/
ipa: [ˈdæb.l̩]
ipa: [ˈdɛəb.l̩]
rhymes: -æbəl
Forms: form: dabbles
form: dabbling
form: dabbled
form: dabbled
Etymology: From earlier dable, equivalent to dab + -le (frequentative suffix), possibly from Middle Dutch dabbelen (“to pinch; knead; to fumble; to dabble”); cognate with Icelandic dafla (“to dabble”).
Senses: examples: text: The Itelians […] reſpectleſſe of gentry, of few words, for they barrell up commonly more then they can broach, and ſo may be ſaid to be like a great bottle with a narrow necke; yet they are moſt cunning and circumſpect in negotiating, ſpecially when they have bin tampering with the Vine or the hop, and are dabbled a little with their liquor.
ref: 1640, I. H. [i.e., James Howell], “A Character of Itelia”, in ΔΕΝΔΡΟΛΟΓΊΑ [DENDROLOGIA]. Dodona’s Grove, or, The Vocall Forrest, London: […] T[homas] B[adger] for H. Mosley [i.e., Humphrey Moseley] […], →OCLC, page 32:
text: If ſhe [the nurse] obſerves that the ſkin ſeems any where to be chafed, after dabbling the part very well with cold water, and drying it gently with a fine cloth, let her apply ſome common powder to it, by means of a ſoft puff.
ref: 1783, George Armstrong, “Rules to be Observed in the Nursing of Children: With a Particular View to Those who are Brought Up by Hand”, in An Account of the Diseases Most Incident to Children, from the Birth till the Age of Puberty; with a Successful Method of Treating Them. To which is Added, an Essay on Nursing: With a Particular View to Children who are Brought Up by Hand. Also a Short General Account of the Dispensary for the Infant Poor, new edition, London: Printed for T[homas] Cadell, in the Strand, →OCLC, page 176:
glosses: To make slightly wet or soiled by spattering or sprinkling a liquid (such as water, mud, or paint) on it; to bedabble.
examples: text: The children sat on the dock and dabbled their feet in the water.
text: The modern masters promise very little; they know that metals cannot be transmuted, and that the elixir of life is a chimera. But these philosophers, whose hands seem only made to dabble in dirt, and their eyes to pore over the microscope or crucible, have indeed performed miracles.
ref: 1816 June – 1817 April/May (date written), [Mary Shelley], Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [Macdonald and Son] for Lackington, Hughes, Harding, Mavor, & Jones, published 1 January 1818, →OCLC:
glosses: To cause splashing by moving a body part like a bill or limb in soft mud, water, etc., often playfully; to play in shallow water; to paddle.
examples: text: When a duck dabbles its bill in mud, it is using the lamellae (transverse plates) on the inner edges of its bill as a highly efficient filter. As the duck dabbles, its tongue acts as a piston, sucking water or mud into the mouth and driving it out again. Only the edible particles are left behind on the lamellae.
ref: 2002, [Maurice Burton; Robert Burton], “Mallard”, in International Wildlife Encyclopedia, 3rd edition, volumes 11 (LEO–MAR), Tarrytown, N.Y.: Marshall Cavendish, →ISBN, page 1525:
glosses: To feed without diving, by submerging the head and neck underwater to seek food, often also tipping up the tail straight upwards above the water.
raw_tags: of waterfowl
examples: text: She’s an actress by trade, but has been known to dabble in poetry.
text: And now that I have finiſhed all the parts, which I propoſed to diſcourſe of; I will conclude all with a ſhort application to the Atheiſts. And I would adviſe them as a Friend, to leave off this dabbling and ſmattering in Philoſophy, this ſhuffling and cutting with Atoms.
ref: 1692 April 4, Richard Bentley, “Matter and Motion Cannot Think: Or, A Confutation of Atheism from the Faculties of the Soul. The Second Sermon Preached April 4. 1692.”, in The Folly and Unreasonableness of Atheism Demonstrated from the Advantage and Pleasure of a Religious Life, the Faculties of Humane Souls, the Structure of Animate Bodies, & the Origin and Frame of the World: In Eight Sermons Preached at the Lecture Founded by the Honourable Robert Boyle, Esquire; in the First Year, MDCXCII [1692], 4th corr. edition, London: Printed by J. H. for H. Mortlock at the Phœnix in St. Paul's Church-Yard, published 1699, →OCLC, page 63:
text: The politics too, for it [the opera] dabbles in politics, are evidently not written from the heart, for the ſentiments contradict each other, but from the paultry motive of catching applauſe, be it juſt or unjuſt, moral or immoral.
ref: 1793 July, “[Monthly Catalogue, for July, 1793.] Art. 57. Sprigs of Laurel: A Comic Opera, in Two Acts. As Performed, with Universal Applause, at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden. Written by John O’Keeffe. 8vo. 1s. Longman. 1793.”, in [Ralph Griffiths], editor, The Monthly Review; or Literary Journal, Enlarged, volume XI, London: Printed for R[alph] Griffiths; and sold by T[homas] Becket, in Pall Mall, →OCLC, page 347:
text: His [Alfred Hitchcock's] work is a mirror of cinematic development: from silent to sound, from black and white to color, from the shoestring productions of his early London years to the expensive vehicles of his Hollywood period. In the process, he dabbled in technical innovations such as 3-D and VistaVision, experimened in special effects and editing techniques, and developed an extensive repertoire of original camera setups and shots.
ref: 1995, Paula Marantz Cohen, “Introduction”, in Alfred Hitchcock: The Legacy of Victorianism, Lexington, Ky.: University Press of Kentucky, →ISBN, page 1:
glosses: To participate or have an interest in an activity in a casual or superficial way.
examples: text: [A fellow of a college in Cambridge] freely confeſs'd, that he had for many Years been ranſacking Antiquity, in order to be the Author of ſome new Heresy or Opinion; and that after all his Searches, he cou'd think or fix upon nothing, but what on Fool or another had been meddling and dabbling with.
ref: 1731, Simon Scriblerus [pseudonym], Whistoneutes: Or, Remarks on Mr. [William] Whiston’s Historical Memoirs of the Life of Dr. Samuel Clarke, &c., London: Printed for T. Warner, at the Black-Boy in Pater-Noster-Row, →OCLC, pages 3–4:
glosses: To interfere or meddle in; to tamper with.
Synonyms: sense: to make slightly wet or soiled
word: bespatter
sense: to make slightly wet or soiled
word: besprinkle
sense: to make slightly wet or soiled
word: spatter
Derived terms: word: bedabble
word: dabblement
word: dabbler
word: dabblesome
word: dabbling
word: dabblingly
word: undabbled
sense: Expressions
word: dabbling duck
Related terms: dilettante
dribble