Variegated, dappled. rare.

Resembling a fleece in colour or conformation; woolly. Of the sky: Covered or flecked with fleece-like clouds.

(a) slang long-backed (obsolete); (b) mackerel-backed sky: = mackerel sky n. at mackerel, n.1 compounds 2.

Of darkness: Dappled with bright spots. Of the sky: Dappled with clouds. Of clouds: Cast like flecks over the sky; in quot. figurative.

Of clouds, sky: dappled like the marks on a mackerel's back. Cf. mackerel sky n. at mackerel, n.1 compounds 2.