mottled, ppl. a.
(ˈmɒt(ə)ld)
[f. prec. + -ed1.]
1. Dappled with spots or blotches; marked with spots, streaks, or patches of different colour.
| 1676 Lond. Gaz. No. 1143/4 A little motled Bitch, with yellow motles from head to toe. c 1765 T. Flloyd Tartarian T. (1785) 114/2, I put a pair of..baskets on a mottled goat. 1794 Herschel in Phil. Trans. LXXXV. 71 The mottled appearance of the sun is owing to an inequality in the level of the surface. 1808 Times 29 Feb. 1/2 Followed a Person, a Mottled Pointer Dog. 1813 Gentl. Mag. LXXXIII. i. 95 Soap..Mottled 114s..per Doz. 1848 Thackeray Bk. Snobs xxvii, Scrubbing.. Polly's dumpy nose with mottled soap. 1868 Princess Alice Mem. 29 Dec. (1884) 207 My babies..look so mottled and healthy. 1874 Garrod & Baxter Mat. Med. (1880) 330 The leaves are..pale green when fresh, mottled-brown when dry. |
b. transf. and
fig.| 1857 Buckle Civiliz. I. xiii. 744 The real lack of ideas which their barbarous and mottled dialect strives to hide. 1891 J. Strong New Era 201 A mottled population, containing the worst elements of society. |
2. Special collocations:
mottled baboon, the common baboon,
Cynocephalus papio;
mottled calf, a variegated leather used for book-binding;
mottled iron, a soft kind of cast iron;
mottled grampus (see
quot.);
mottled owl, a North American owl,
Scops asio;
mottled pig, a kind of pig-iron (see
quot.). Also in collectors' names for many British moths, as
mottled beauty,
bran,
carpet,
grey, etc. (see Rennie
Butterflies & Moths 1832,
passim).
| 1802 Bingley Anim. Biog. (1813) I. 73 The Common or *Mottled Baboon. |
| 1895 J. W. Zaehnsdorf Hist. Bookbinding 27 *Mottled Calf.—Pale-coloured calf, decorated by the sprinkling of acids in drops. |
| 1884 G. B. Goode, etc. Nat. Hist. Aquatic Anim. 14 On the California coast occurs the Whiteheaded or *Mottled Grampus, Grampus Stearnsii Dall. |
| 1836–41 Brande Chem. (ed. 5) 763 Gray or *mottled-iron is softer and less brittle. 1884 W. H. Greenwood Steel & Iron iv. 48 The characteristic dappled appearance peculiar to mottled iron. |
| 1781 Latham Gen. Synopsis Birds I. i. 126 *Mottled Owl. |
| 1880 Encycl. Brit. XIII. 284/2 Sometimes a pig will solidify partly as white iron partly as grey..; such iron is known as ‘*mottled pig’. |
| 1749 B. Wilkes Eng. Moths & Butterflies 36 The *mottled Umber-moth. |
Hence
ˈmottledness, mottled condition.
| 1830 J. Wilson in Blackw. Mag. XXVIII. 386 The red and brown mottledness o' its striped and starry beauty. |