The AI-powered English dictionary
third-person singular simple present mottles, present participle mottling, simple past and past participle mottled
To mark with blotches of different color, or shades of color, as if stained; to spot; to maculate. quotations examples
Between the grey mist of rainclouds the sun suddenly appeared to mottle the wet asphalt of Marble Arch in patches of silver and ebony.
1936, F.J. Thwaites, chapter XXII, in The Redemption, Sydney: H. John Edwards, published 1940, page 214
countable and uncountable, plural mottles
(countable) A distinguishing blotch of colour. examples
(countable, uncountable) A mottled or spotted pattern. quotations examples
SLRSV, being mostly latent in strawberries and other fruit crops, is of very minor importance. It can cause some mottle and decline in certain strawberry cultivars.
1992, Quarantine Pests for Europe, Wallingford, Oxfordshire: CAB International, page 972