variegate

American  

[vair-ee-i-geyt, vair-i-geyt] / ˈvɛər i ɪˌgeɪt, ˈvɛər ɪˌgeɪt /

verb (used with object)

variegated, variegating

1. to make varied in appearance, as by adding different colors.

2. to give variety to; diversify.

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variegate British  

/ ˈvɛərɪˌɡeɪt /

verb

1. to alter the appearance of, esp by adding different colours

2. to impart variety to

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Other Word Forms

• variegation noun
• variegator noun

Etymology

Origin of variegate

1645–55; < Late Latin variegātus (past participle of variegāre to make (something) look varied), equivalent to Latin vari ( us ) various + -eg- (combining form of agere to do; agent ) + -ātus -ate ¹

Explanation

To variegate is to make something more irregular, especially its color. You can variegate your yard by planting different colors of blooming flowers all over it. When you variegate your life in some way, you make it more interesting and varied. While it's more common to see the adjective variegated, particularly when people talk about dappled or streaked color, you can use the verb to talk about diversifying or mixing things. You can variegate your education, for example, by studying many different subjects. The Latin root, variegare, means "diversify with different colors."

Example Sentences

She also found out that she has a rare gene mutation that causes a disease called variegate porphyria, which can cause blistering skin lesions and acute attacks that cause severe abdominal pain.

From Washington Post • Jun. 26, 2017

In jihadi-speak, this is known as “marbling”: local groups variegate their formal ties with global movements when strategically or financially convenient.

From The New Yorker • Dec. 4, 2016

If the callow ends progress properly, their flexibility should variegate the Chargers' front seven down the road.

From New York Times • Aug. 20, 2012

To enrich his theme and variegate his texture, he abruptly interjects a two-minute "quote" from another movie and later for the same reasons rabbets in some paragraphs of Edgar Allan Poe.

From Time Magazine Archive

Wayside shrines are decked with laburnum boughs and iris blossoms plucked from the copse-woods, where spires of purple and pink orchis variegate the thin, fine grass.

From Sketches and Studies in Italy and Greece, Second Series by Brown, Horatio Robert Forbes