dimplen.
/ˈdɪmp(ə)l/ 1.
a. A small hollow or dent, permanent or evanescent, formed in the surface of some plump part of the human body, esp. in the cheeks in the act of smiling, and regarded as a pleasing feature.
ΘΚΠ
the world > life > the body > skin > dimple > [noun]
pita1275
dimplec1540
gelasin?1608
c1540 (?a1400) Destr. Troy 3060 Hir chyn full choise was..With a dympull full derne, daynté to se.
1588 R. Greene Pandosto sig. C4 Shee hath dimples in her cheekes.
1598 J. Florio Worlde of Wordes Pozzette, dimples, pits, or little holes in womens cheekes.
a1616 W. Shakespeare Winter's Tale (1623) ii. iii. 102 The Valley, The pretty dimples of his Chin, and Cheeke. View more context for this quotation
1645 J. Milton L'Allegro in Poems 31 Wreathed Smiles, Such as hang on Hebe's cheek, And love to live in dimple sleek.
1784 F. Burney Diary Oct. (1842) II. 321 Three letters in her hand, and three thousand dimples in her cheeks and chin!
1813 Ld. Byron Giaour (orig. draft) ii, in Wks. (1846) 63/1 (note) Like dimples upon Ocean's cheek.
1870 R. W. Emerson Society & Solitude 95 Parents, studious of the witchcraft of curls and dimples and broken words.
b. The action of dimpling.
ΚΠ
1713 R. Steele in Guardian 14 Apr. 1/2 The Dimple is practised to give a Grace to the Features, and is frequently made a Bait to entangle a gazing Lover.
2. transferred. Any slight surface depression or indentation resembling the preceding, as a dip in the surface of land or a ripple on the water.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > shape > unevenness > condition or fact of receding > [noun] > action of making indentation > an indentation on a surface > slight
dimple1632
fossette1827
1632 W. Lithgow Totall Disc. Trav. vi. 278 Whereon (say they) Elias oft slept, and..that the hollow dimples of the stone was onely made by the impression of his body.
1664 H. Power Exper. Philos. i. 3 Not absolute perforations, but onley dimples in their crustaceous Tunica Cornea.
1796 W. Withering Arrangem. Brit. Plants (ed. 3) IV. 82 Upper part [of fungus] convex, with or without a dimple in the centre.
1815 Guide to Watering Places 299 In a dimple of the hill..rises St. Anne's Well.
1838 R. Southey Thalaba (ed. 4) xi. xxxviii, in Poet. Wks. IV. 409 The gentle waters gently part In dimples round the prow.
1892 J. Mather Poems 51 In dimples of the mountain lay The panting herd of deer.
Compounds
In combinations.
ΚΠ
1870 A. D. T. Whitney We Girls ix. 147 Her dimple-cleft and placid chin.
1892 J. Ashby-Sterry Lazy Minstrel 80 Sweet little dimple-cheek—Merrily dancing.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1896; most recently modified version published online September 2021).
dimplev.
1. transitive. To mark with, or as with, dimples.
ΘΚΠ
the world > space > shape > unevenness > condition or fact of receding > form a recess in [verb (transitive)] > form as an indentation > make slight indentation(s) in
dimple1602
bedimple1718
dimp1821
1602 J. Marston Antonios Reuenge iii. iii. sig. F2 I will laugh, and dimple my thinne cheeke, With capring ioy.
1697 J. Dryden tr. Virgil Æneis vii, in tr. Virgil Wks. 401 With Whirlpools dimpled.
1796 R. Southey Donica in Ballads No little wave Dimpled the water's edge.
1830 Ld. Tennyson Lilian 16 The lightning laughters dimple The baby-roses in her cheeks.
1847 H. Miller First Impressions Eng. vi. 112 Here the surface is dimpled by unreckoned hollows; there fretted by uncounted mounds.
1891 B. Harte First Family Tasajara xiii Leaden rain..dimpling like shot the sluggish pools of the flood.
2. intransitive. To break into dimples or ripples, to form dimples, to ripple.
ΘΚΠ
the world > the earth > water > flow or flowing > wave > movement of waves > move restlessly about [verb (intransitive)] > ripple
lipper1513
crisple1604
ripple1614
flutter1638
dimple1667
wimple1720
jabble1894
the world > life > the body > skin > dimple > [verb (intransitive)]
dimple1762
the world > space > shape > unevenness > condition or fact of receding > recede or form recess [verb (intransitive)] > be or become indented > slightly
dimple1864
1667 J. Dryden Annus Mirabilis 1666 (stanza 94) 24 And smiling Eddies dimpled on the Main.
1734 A. Pope Epist. to Arbuthnot 312 As shallow streams run dimpling all the way.
1762 O. Goldsmith Citizen of World II. 197 She is then permitted to dimple and smile, when the dimples and smiles begin to forsake her.
a1807 W. Wordsworth Prelude (1959) vi. 212 A lordly River..Dimpling along in silent majesty.
1853 W. M. Thackeray Eng. Humourists ii. 66 Cheeks dimpling with smiles.
1864 Ld. Tennyson Aylmer's Field in Enoch Arden, etc. 59 Low knolls That dimpling died into each other.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1896; most recently modified version published online September 2019).
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n.c1540v.1602