v. Also 8 variagate. [f. L. variegāt-, ppl. stem of variegāre to make varied or of divers colors, 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 color or appearance; to mark or cover with patches of different colors 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. 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 Variegating ppl. a.
1727. Pope, etc., Art Sinking, 93. Of tropes and figures: and first of the variegating, confounding, and reversing figures.
