different between dabble vs bedabble

English

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”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?dæb(?)l/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?dæb?l/
• Rhymes: -æb?l
• Hyphenation: dab?ble

Verb

dabble (third-person singular simple present dabbles, present participle dabbling, simple past and past participle dabbled)

1. (transitive) To make slightly wet or soiled by spattering or sprinkling a liquid (such as water, mud, or paint) on it; to bedabble. [from late 16th c.]
2. (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.
3. (intransitive, figuratively) To participate or have an interest in an activity in a casual or superficial way.
4. (intransitive, obsolete) To interfere or meddle in; to tamper with.

Synonyms

• (to make slightly wet or soiled): bespatter, besprinkle, spatter

Derived terms

• bedabble
• dabbler
• dabblesome
• dabbling (noun)
• dabbling duck

Translations

See also

• dribble

Noun

dabble (plural dabbles)

1. A spattering or sprinkling of a liquid.
2. An act of splashing in soft mud, water, etc.
3. An act of participation in an activity in a casual or superficial way.

Translations

References

• John A. Simpson and Edward S. C. Weiner, editors (1989) , “dabble, v.”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, volume IV (Creel–Duzepere), 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, ?ISBN, page 207, columns 2–3

English

Etymology

From be- +? dabble.

Verb

bedabble (third-person singular simple present bedabbles, present participle bedabbling, simple past and past participle bedabbled)

1. To dabble about or all over with moisture; make something wet by sprinkling or spattering water, paint, or other liquid on it.
   • c. 1595, William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III, Scene 2,^[1]

     Bedabbled with the dew, and torn with briers,

     I can no further crawl, no further go.

   • 1751, John Hill, The Adventures of Mr. George Edwards, A Creole, London: T. Osborne, Chapter 7, p. 163,^[2]

     The rest was fill’d somewhat indiscriminately, with Philosophers, Antiquarians, Mathematicians, and Mechanics. A Scotch Peasant produc’d a New Orrery; a German Mechanic, a Table Fountain contriv’d to play in a Desert, to the great Entertainment, and Bedabbling of every body present […]

   • 1848, Elizabeth Gaskell, Mary Barton, Chapter 14,^[3]

     A vision of her pale, sweet face, with her bright hair all bedabbled with gore, seemed to float constantly before his aching eyes.

   • 1912, Charles Egbert Craddoc (pseudonym of Mary Noailles Murfree), “The Crucial Moment” in The Raid of the Guerilla and Other Stories, Philadelphia: Lippincott,^[4]

     […] the weapon in Jeffrey's hand was discharged in his latest impulse of action after he fell to the floor, the blood gushing from a wound that crimsoned all the delicate whiteness of his shirt-front and bedabbled his snowy hair and beard.

Translations