Bedabbling

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Splashing or spattering something with liquid until it becomes wet, dirty, or stained
2. Sprinkling or soiling a surface with drops of mud, water, or other liquid, leaving it marked
3. Making something wet and spotted by repeatedly splashing it with mud or some other liquid

Etymology: "Bedabbling" is the present participle of a verb built from two plain English parts: the prefix "be-", which in Old English could intensify or cover an action, and "dabble," a word that means to splash or wet something lightly. Together, "bedabble" means to splash or spatter something thoroughly, leaving it wet or dirty all over. The prefix is the older piece. "Be-" descends from Old English "be-", which was used to add a sense of covering or surrounding, as in "besmear" or "besprinkle." Attaching it to "dabble" produced a verb that describes being soaked or spotted with liquid or mud, rather than just touched by it. "Dabble" itself is the more interesting half, since it has a broader history than its modern sense of doing something casually suggests. Its original meaning was physical: to wet or splash, a sense that the bedabbled form keeps.

Synonyms: bespatter, splash, spatter