DABBLE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Dabble

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/dˈæbəl/ Listen

verb

Dabble v. t. (past & past part. dabbled; pres. part. dabbling) To wet by little dips or strokes; to spatter; to sprinkle; to moisten; to wet. "Bright hair dabbled in blood."

Dabble v. i.

To play in water, as with the hands; to paddle or splash in mud or water. "Where the duck dabbles 'mid the rustling sedge."

To work in slight or superficial manner; to do in a small way; to tamper; to meddle. "Dabbling here and there with the text." "During the first year at Dumfries, Burns for the first time began to dabble in politics."

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Etymology of 'Dabble'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Dabble" Quotes from Famous Books

... what is a vital lie but a lie?" the White Logic challenges. "Come. Fill your glass and let us examine these vital liars who crowd your bookshelves. Let us dabble in ...

— John Barleycorn • Jack London

... to New York and to the Pacific, Joe thinks over every turn of this intrigue. If Hardin tries to hide Armand Valois' fortune, why should he dabble in ...

— The Little Lady of Lagunitas • Richard Henry Savage

... become active. He desires to dabble in science. One day he studies the Arab mystics, Oriental legends, and the next, he studies the marine fauna, etc. His perceptions have never been so clear. His brain is in continual activity. "It is strange," ...

— Une Vie, A Piece of String and Other Stories • Guy de Maupassant

... The men all ran to their kayaks eager to secure the beautiful creature. But the boy-seal swam lustily away as his grandmother had told him to do, and the men continued to pursue him. Whenever he rose to the surface to breathe, he took care to come up behind the kayaks, where he would splash and dabble in order to lure them on. As soon as he had attracted their attention and they had turned to pursue him, he would dive and come up farther out in the sea. The men were so interested in catching him that they did not observe ...

— A Treasury of Eskimo Tales • Clara Kern Bayliss

... fate of our English Newman Street apostles, and of M. de la M—, the mad priest, and his congregation of mad converts, should be a warning to such of us as are inclined to dabble in religious speculations; for, in them, as in all others, our flighty brains soon lose themselves, and we find our reason speedily lying prostrated at the mercy of our passions; and I think that Madame Sand's ...

— The Paris Sketch Book Of Mr. M. A. Titmarsh • William Makepeace Thackeray

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