mottle
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English[edit]
Etymology[edit]
1670-80. Probably back-formation from motley.
Pronunciation[edit]
Verb[edit]
mottle (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.
- 1936, F.J. Thwaites, chapter XXII, in The Redemption, Sydney: H. John Edwards, published 1940, page 214:
- Between the grey mist of rainclouds the sun suddenly appeared to mottle the wet asphalt of Marble Arch in patches of silver and ebony.
Noun[edit]
mottle (countable and uncountable, plural mottles)
- (countable) A distinguishing blotch of colour.
- (countable, uncountable) A mottled or spotted pattern.
- The most common symptom is a mild mottle on the youngest leaves of infected plants.
- 1992, Quarantine Pests for Europe, Wallingford, Oxfordshire: CAB International, →ISBN, page 972:
- 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.