| 释义 |
▪ I. dabble, v.|ˈdæb(ə)l|
[Appears late in 16th c. Agrees in form, and in sense 2, with Du. dabbelen, var. of dabben, expl. by Plantijn as ‘pattrouiller, ou patteler de mains’ to dabble with the feet or hands, met de voet int slijck dabbelen, ‘trepiner des piedz en la fange’, to trample with the feet in the mud. In form Du. dabbelen is the frequentative of dabben: the relation of dabble and dab in Eng. is less clear.]
1. trans. To wet by splashing, as in running through a puddle or wading about in shallow water, or by pressing against wet shrubs, or the like; to move anything to and fro in water; hence to wet in a casual way; to disfigure or soil with splashes of any liquid; to bespatter, besprinkle, bedabble. Said of the personal agent, or the liquid medium.
1557Tusser 100 Points Husb. xxvii, Set bauen alone, lay the bowghes from the blockes: the drier, the les maidens dablith their dockes [skirts behind]. 1594Shakes. Rich. III, i. iv. 54 A Shadow like an Angell, with bright hayre Dabbel'd in blood. 1604Middleton Witch ii. iii. 3 We must take heed we ride through all the puddles..that your safeguard there May be most probably dabbled. a1656Ussher Ann. vi. (1658) 570 The Country being woody they were daily dabled with the fall of snow from the trees. 1676Wiseman Surg. (J.), I scarified, and dabbled the wound with oil of turpentine. 1860Gen. P. Thompson Audi Alt. III. cxxi. 66 The men who are dabbling the Queen's robe in blood. 1887T. A. Trollope What I remember II. v. 85, I dabbled a handkerchief in a neighbouring fountain for her to wash her streaked face.
b. causal.
1847Tennyson Princess iii. 297 Or in the..holy secrets of this microcosm, Dabbling a shameless hand.
2. intr. To move (with feet or hands, or the bill) in shallow water, liquid mud, etc., so as to cause some splashing; to play about in shallow water, to paddle.
1611Cotgr., Patouiller..to padle, or dable in with the feet. 1626J. Pory in Ellis Orig. Lett. i. 331 They..made her to dable in the durte on a foul morning from Somersett House to St. James. a1661Fuller Worthies (1840) III. 135 Ducklings, which..naturally delight to dabble in the water. 1789Wordsw. Evening Walk, Where the duck dabbles 'mid the rustling sedge. 1821Clare Vill. Minstr. II. 118 The long wet pasture grass she dabbles through. 1858Froude Hist. Eng. III. xvii. 488 The minister who..had stooped to dabble in these muddy waters of intrigue.
3. fig. To employ oneself in a dilettante way in (any business or pursuit) without going deeply or seriously into it; to work off and on at, as a matter of whim or fancy. Const. in (with, at, etc.).
1625B. Jonson Staple of N. ii. i, Let him still dabble in poetry. 1676Marvell Mr. Smirke 14 Some Youngster that had been Dabbling amongst the Socinian Writers. 1768–74Tucker Lt. Nat. (1852) I. 120 One of those sources of disputation which must not be dabbled with: we must drink deep, or had better not taste at all. 1792T. Jefferson Writ. (1830) IV. 465 Examining how far their own members..had been dabbling in stocks. 1840Dickens Old C. Shop xxviii, It's the delight of my life to have dabbled in poetry. 1879G. Macdonald P. Faber III. i. 14 The man who dabbles at saving the world by science, education, hygeian and other economics.
†b. To meddle, tamper with; to interfere in.
1660R. Coke Justice Vind. 7 He has bound himself up from dabling with the Grounds of Obedience and Government. a1732Atterbury To Pope (J.), You, I think, have been dabbling here and there with the text. 1776Paine Com. Sense, Addr. Quakers (1791) 80 Dabbling in matters, which the professed quietude of your principles instruct you not to meddle with. 1794Sir F. M. Eden in Ld. Auckland's Corr. (1862) III. 238 As he loves to be dabbling, he may perhaps go.
†4. To move up and down in a playful, trifling manner, like one dabbling in water. Obs.
a1688Villiers (Dk. Buckhm.) Poems (1775) 169 I'll dabble up and down, and take the air.
▪ II. ˈdabble, n.
[f. prec. verb.]
The act of dabbling; that which dabbles.
1871R. Ellis Catullus lxiii. 7 While still the gory dabble did anew the soil pollute. |