mottle

American  

[mot-l] / ˈmɒt l /

verb (used with object)

mottled, mottling

1. to mark or diversify with spots or blotches of a different color or shade.

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noun

1. a diversifying spot or blotch of color.

2. mottled coloring or pattern.

mottle British  

/ ˈmɒtəl /

verb

1. (tr) to colour with streaks or blotches of different shades

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noun

1. a mottled appearance, as of the surface of marble

2. one streak or blotch of colour in a mottled surface

Other Word Forms

• mottlement
  noun
• mottler
  noun

Etymology

Origin of mottle

First recorded in 1670–80; probably back formation from motley

Explanation

To mottle is to speckle or dapple with dots. An artist might mottle a canvas by dripping splotches of paint on it. You can also use mottle as a noun, for a patchy arrangement of color or light: "The dog's fur was a mottle of brown and black." The adjective mottled is more common than mottle for describing things marked with spots or blotches, and both words come from motley, which today means "mismatched" but was originally defined as "multicolored."

Example Sentences

“I’ve seen many other things happen to port-a-potties but never an explosion,” Jason Mottle, who has been working the construction site, told WPRI-TV.

From Fox News • Aug. 22, 2019

The Mottle, possessing a motor attachment, can be wound up and it will then travel all over the bed, diffusing an agreeable warmth everywhere.

From Punch or the London Charivari, Vol. 147, December 23, 1914 by Various

His eldest boy, having won the Mottle Scholarship, was going up to Cambridge in the Autumn.

From Idle Ideas in 1905 by Jerome, Jerome K. (Jerome Klapka)

Mottle, mot′l, v.t. to mark with spots as if stained.—n. the arrangement of spots on any mottled surface, in marble, &c.—adjs.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 2 of 4: E-M) by Various