dapple

Etymology

noun

1. A mottled marking, usually in clusters.
2. 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=9x8UPZTbcIMkCOkMCSHT1YEwX9M 2004
   A Sarronnese officer whom he did not know was leading a riderless horse, a dapple. 1996, L E Modesitt, The Order War
   2004, D Caroline Coile, http://books.google.com/books?ie=UTF-8&hl=en&vid=ISBN0764126733&id=vmTgPakg8nUC&pg=PA21&lpg=PA21&sig=5r0UWTYWxGcZayQlGiP4v3b1ajU Some well-intentioned breeders inadvertently breed two dapples together because occasionally a dapple will have so few patches of mottled coloration it appears undappled.

adj

1. Having a mottled or spotted skin or coat, dappled.
   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

1. To mark or become marked with mottling or spots.
   Kris awoke with a start. Sweat dappled his forehead, and he brushed it away. 2006, Ace Edmonds, Bands, Part 2