How to Use dapple in a Sentence

dapple

verb
  • Dried blood dappled his face, neck and bedsheets.
    — Rick Jervis, USA Today, 27 Sep. 2025
  • All have green leaves dappled with white, yellow, or pale green.
    — Leanne Potts, Better Homes & Gardens, 14 Jan. 2026
  • In the shot, the model sits behind the wheel of a car dappled with rain.
    — Pete Forester, Esquire, 12 June 2017
  • Slow down, take deep breaths and enjoy how the trees dapple the sunlight.
    — New York Times, 5 July 2021
  • Around us were rolling hills flecked with houses, dappled by the sun shining through the clouds.
    — Literary Hub, 17 June 2026
  • Just look at the shed, where dappled sunlight washes over rows of horseshoes tacked on the front.
    — Janet Eastman, OregonLive.com, 22 June 2017
  • Rumours break like waves in some nameless river, dappling our sleeves with falsehood.
    — Literary Hub, 28 May 2026
  • Their drought tolerance and broad, dappled-shady canopy doesn’t hurt their appeal either.
    — Kenneth Setzer, miamiherald, 20 July 2017
  • Liters of fake blood dappling walls escalated to vats of viscera, with some sperm for good measure.
    — Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter, 27 Sep. 2023
  • In fact, tree canopies provide delightful shade allowing the sun to dapple the path.
    — Jeanine Barone, Forbes.com, 8 Sep. 2025
  • Today, lupines are still some of the most prolific flowers dappling the gray surface.
    — Christy Karras, The Seattle Times, 26 July 2017
  • Allow dappled light to enter throughout the tree by thinning out crowded growth.
    — Debbie Arrington, sacbee.com, 25 May 2017
  • And yet there are, dappled among the many celebrities who refuse to log off, a small number who shine like a beacon in the darkness.
    — Casey Newton, The Verge, 15 Dec. 2018
  • The wrappers are tender at the ends, but golden and crispy at the center and dappled with pockmarks from the sauté oil.
    — Michael Nagrant, RedEye Chicago, 15 Aug. 2017
  • The salt air, sunshine and cool afternoon breezes tend to dapple racehorses’ coats.
    — Diane Bell, sandiegouniontribune.com, 19 July 2017
  • His skeleton is well preserved, his bones dappled with gooey-looking sediment.
    — Literary Hub, 10 Oct. 2025
  • Is your garden shaded for part of the day or is the shade dappled—allowing some sunlight to filter through all day?
    — Rita Pelczar, Better Homes & Gardens, 17 Feb. 2023
  • My own remembrances of Canada are dappled.
    — Rivka Galchen, Condé Nast Traveler, 3 Mar. 2023
  • Dense canopies of coniferous trees dapple out the harshest parts of the sun so there's no need to squint to take in the lush surroundings.
    — Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 6 Feb. 2026
  • The cracked, rugged exterior will be crisp and dappled with pockets that are just starting to turn golden brown.
    — Jenn Harris, Los Angeles Times, 11 Dec. 2023
  • One customer checks out her future resting place and looks at the light dappled through the trees onto the hardscrabble patch.
    — Peter Keough, BostonGlobe.com, 7 Aug. 2019
  • The bundle is painted with butter then toasted on a flattop until dappled.
    — Cesar Hernandez, San Francisco Chronicle, 3 Feb. 2026
  • Many of these were designed by Jerde, who reliably dappled color and wit onto drab streetscapes from coast to coast.
    — Alissa Walker, Curbed, 5 June 2019
  • Sunlight that is filtered or dappled (as through tree leaves or lace curtains) will create faint shadows with mottled shapes.
    — Peg Aloi, The Spruce, 16 Apr. 2026
  • The great sandstone dome frames fall colors dappled with sunlight filtering into the canyon at its entrance.
    — Katherine Rodeghier, chicagotribune.com, 4 Aug. 2017
  • The foliage was beginning to turn, dappling the hillsides with splashes of orange, yellow and red that looked like tie-dye.
    — Bryan Hendricks, Arkansas Online, 5 Nov. 2023
  • The rocky point offered a spectacular view of the rugged mountainside, a few shadows dappling the jagged desertscape from the clouds above.
    — Brady MacDonald, latimes.com, 9 June 2017
  • Without time to hydrate and form a thick paste, the batter dapples the surface of each piece with crispy pebbles rather than a homogenous shell.
    — Ali Bouzari, San Francisco Chronicle, 16 May 2018
  • Cheese slices start at $3 (or $2 during happy hour) and come with an almost translucent crust dappled with pretty brown spots.
    — oregonlive, 11 Mar. 2020
  • The pale tortilla was dappled with shades of brown, toasty and tawny—simplicity, done superlatively.
    — Helen Rosner, New Yorker, 3 May 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'dapple.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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