Dabble

Quick meaning: Dabble is a verb meaning (transitive) To make slightly wet or soiled by spattering or sprinkling a liquid (such as water, mud, or paint) on it; to bedabble.

Meaning

(transitive) To make slightly wet or soiled by spattering or sprinkling a liquid (such as water, mud, or paint) on it; to bedabble.

More Meanings

1. (intransitive, figuratively) To participate or have an interest in an activity in a casual or superficial way.
2. (intransitive, obsolete) To interfere or meddle in; to tamper with.
3. A spattering or sprinkling of a liquid.
4. An act of splashing in soft mud, water, etc.
5. An act of participation in an activity in a casual or superficial way.
6. (transitive) 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.
7. (intransitive, of waterfowl) 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.

Example Sentences

The children sat on the dock and dabbled their feet in the water.

She’s an actress by trade, but has been known to dabble in poetry.

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.

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.

Word Forms

• dabbles
• dabbling
• dabbled

Synonyms for dabble

Depending on context, synonyms include bespatter, besprinkle, spatter, paddle, smatter.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include smatter, paddle, splash, bedabble, muddle, drabble.

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