How to Use stipple in a Sentence

stipple

1 of 2 verb
  • Two pumps on the back of my hand did the trick, stippling it across my red-speckled cheeks and around my nose.
    — Conçetta Ciarlo, Vogue, 21 Dec. 2025
  • These pests cause leaves to curl and distort in shape or produce a stippling pattern on plant leaves.
    — Lauren Landers, Better Homes & Gardens, 20 July 2024
  • Spider mites cause yellowing or stippling on the leaves.
    — Karen Brewer Grossman, Southern Living, 7 Aug. 2025
  • Then stipple a blush brush’s bristles into the product and buff onto your cheeks.
    — Conçetta Ciarlo, Vogue, 7 Mar. 2025
  • Palm trees and cactuses stipple the town, and reddish buttes rise in the distance.
    — Manohla Dargis, New York Times, 15 June 2023
  • For best results, blend out in a stippling motion with either a makeup sponge or flat blush brush.
    — Iman Balagam, Vogue, 18 Feb. 2025
  • These are the kind that stipple our sidewalks — nascent trace fossils, records of fleeting contact.
    — Jessica Leigh Hester, New York Times, 31 Jan. 2023
  • Both of her hands had second degree burns, and her face, arms and chest were stippled with shrapnel and debris.
    — Seyward Darby, Longreads, 23 July 2024
  • Spider mites can stipple the foliage during hot, dry weather.
    — Brandee Gruener, Southern Living, 19 Nov. 2024
  • Leaf-sucking spider mites stipple the foliage when the shrubs are planted in hot, dry areas.
    — Brandee Gruener, Southern Living, 11 Apr. 2025
  • As opposed to swirling, stippling will blend and deposit product at the same time for a second-skin effect.
    — Lauren Valenti, Marie Claire, 17 May 2017
  • The sedan’s rear driver’s door was stippled with multiple bullet holes, and both windows on that side were shot out.
    — Alice Yin, chicagotribune.com, 14 Sep. 2019
  • Swipe directly onto the hollows of your cheeks and temples, then blend up and out with a stippling brush to keep the lift high and defined.
    — Jennifer Hussein, Allure, 12 July 2025
  • Yellow stippling on plant leaves and sticky honeydew residue can be signs of pests, but pests can also cause leaf wilting and stunted growth.
    — Lauren Landers, Better Homes & Gardens, 9 Jan. 2025
  • As squash bugs continue to feed on plant sap, yellow leaf stippling progresses to more severe damage.
    — Lauren Landers, Better Homes & Gardens, 27 June 2024
  • The terrifying time was stippled with the ordinary and the joyous.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 11 Oct. 2019
  • Using a damp sponge, Ciucci suggests tapping into cream highlighter and stippling it on the high points of the face.
    — Tiffany Dodson, SELF, 11 Oct. 2018
  • As for the shape, the tapered tip and wide base make easy work of buffing, stippling, and blending creams or powders along every curve and contour of your face.
    — Sophia Panych, Allure, 15 May 2025
  • Pests can sometimes invade houseplant collections and cause issues, like yellow stippling on plant leaves.
    — Lauren Landers, Better Homes & Gardens, 23 Dec. 2024
  • Martha Ulrich shivered in the harsh February cold, her bare legs stippled with goosebumps.
    — oregonlive, 4 Feb. 2020
  • Compare stippling the pages with water spots, unable to put your arms down, with balancing an ashtray on the rim of the tub, unable to put one arm down.
    — Garnett Kilberg Cohen, The New Yorker, 25 Aug. 2019
  • Inside the passage, the lips of water beyond my torchlight are coal black, stippled with freckles of sediment.
    — Literary Hub, 10 Oct. 2025
  • Kardashian mixed the two products together on the back of her hand with a Kabuki brush and then quickly stippled it all over her face.
    — Bella Cacciatore, Glamour, 16 Aug. 2019
  • Some traits of his tattoos, including their one- to three-millimeter width, rounded edges and stippling, suggest they were made with a sharp piece of bone or copper.
    — Sarah Kuta, Smithsonian Magazine, 19 Apr. 2024
  • His go-to technique starts with tailoring prep to skin type, stippling in foundation, and using strategic spot-concealing.
    — Larry Stansbury, Essence, 8 May 2025
  • For best results, the brand recommends working your cream or liquid foundation into the brush, before stippling into your skin.
    — Conçetta Ciarlo, Vogue, 28 Mar. 2025
  • Either use a contour palette or a matte concealer two shades lighter than your skin tone, and then begin applying it with a sponge or stippling brush to the high points of your face.
    — Brooke Shunatona, Cosmopolitan, 20 Feb. 2018
  • When blended in a stippling motion, foundation melts into your complexion for a natural finish.
    — Conçetta Ciarlo, Vogue, 28 Mar. 2025
  • The lemons and limes come stippled with a natural texture, green leaves and all, while the apricot, full of fruit filling, has an incredibly organic texture.
    — Kristen Bateman, Vogue, 18 Oct. 2017
  • Kenturah Davis’ 2015 self-portrait was made using an ink stippling technique.
    — Susan Dunne, courant.com, 22 Oct. 2019

stipple

2 of 2 noun
  • Squash bugs leave white stipples, or dots, on foliage, followed by yellowing leaves.
    — Arricca Elin Sansone, Southern Living, 10 June 2026
  • The surface of the lake, roused to a salt-and-pepper stipple by the rain, was devoid of sailboats or swimmers.
    — John Bowe, Travel + Leisure, 5 June 2021
  • Stage three required more silicone cheeks, chin, neck, back of neck, lips and stretch and stipple to age around her eyes, forehead and furrow.
    — Jazz Tangcay, Variety, 16 Mar. 2022
  • With the iron heated, carefully press the tip into the plastic of the handle repeatedly to cover it with stipples.
    — Tyler Freel, Outdoor Life, 19 Nov. 2019
  • The 26-year-old tenor saxophonist has set most of these original compositions at a medium-fast tempo, and her saxophone stipples and scampers, gesturing toward the influence of the alto saxophonist Steve Lehman.
    — New York Times, 11 May 2018

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'stipple.' 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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