variegate, v.
(ˈvɛərɪɪgeɪt, -rɪg-)
Also 8 variagate.
[f. L. variegāt-, ppl. stem of variegāre to make varied or of divers colours, f. vari-us various a.]
1. trans. To diversify; to invest with variety; to enliven with differences or changes.
| 1653 More Antid. Ath. Ep. Ded. A 3 The glorious Wisdom and Goodness of God so fairly drawn out and skilfully variegated in the sundry Objects of externall Nature. 1812 W. Tennant Anster F. Pref., Ancient and modern manners are mixed and jumbled together, to heighten the humour or to variegate the description. 1813 Shelley Q. Mab. iv. 150 All the germs Of pain or pleasure, sympathy or hate, That variegate the eternal universe. 1852 H. Rogers Ecl. Faith (1853) 122 The spectacle of the infinite diversities of religion, which variegate, but alas! do not beautify the world. |
b. esp. To render varied in colour or appearance; to mark or cover with patches of different colours or objects.
| a 1728 Woodward Fossils i. 20 The Shells are filled with a white Spar, which variegates and adds to the Beauty of the Stone. 1796 Morse Amer. Geog. I. 620 The blended verdure of woodlands and of cultivated declivities..variegates the prospect in a charming manner. 1855 Macaulay Hist. Eng. xviii. IV. 238 Where the British flag, variegated by the crosses of Saint George and Saint Andrew, hung by the side of the white flag of France. 1863 Hawthorne Our Old Home (1879) 107 Lichens..variegate the monotonous gray with hues of yellow and red. |
2. To vary by change or alteration. rare.
| 1674 S. Jeake Arith. (1696) 371 Particulars are to be divided by a Mixture of Division of Species and Compound Surds, variegated as the Case requires. 1775 Adair Amer. Ind. 69 They were not in a savage state, when they first separated, and variegated their dialects, with so much religious care, and exact art. |
Hence ˈvariegating ppl. a.
| 1727 Pope, etc. Art Sinking 93 Of tropes and figures: and first of the variegating, confounding, and reversing figures. |