[f. SPECK sb.1, or back-formation from SPECKED ppl. a.]
1. trans. To mark with specks; to dot after the manner of specks.
1580. Hollyband, Treas. Fr. Tong, Picoter, to peckle, to pricke thicke, to specke.
1611. Cotgr., Maculer, to spot, blot; specke, speckle, bespatter.
1805. Southey, Madoc, I. vi. A beautiful and populous plain it was;… And many a single dwelling specking it.
1835. Willis, Pencillings, I. xii. 89. Only broken by a few prostrate figures, just specking its wide area.
1853. Mrs. Gaskell, Cranford, i. (1864), 5. Trim gardens full of choice flowers without a weed to speck them.
b. In passive: To be covered, marked or diversified with (or by) specks or spots.
1667. Milton, P. L., IX. 429. Each Flour of slender stalk, whose head though gay Carnation, Purple, Azure, or spect with Gold, Hung drooping unsustained.
1678. Lond. Gaz., No. 1337/4. A Little white lap Spaniel Dog,… his legs speckt with brown.
a. 1732. Gay, Ep., xiii. Poems 1790, I. 217. When I some antique jar behold, Or white, or blue, or speck’d with gold.
1821. Clare, Vill. Minstr. (1823), I. 67. Pasture speck’d with sheep, and horse, and cow.
1845. E. Warburton, Crescent & Cross, I. 339. The lake was soon specked by people swimming, or rowing themselves on logs of wood.
1870. Rock, Text. Fab., I. 40. They are specked all over with quatrefoil spots.
2. intr. To move or fly like specks.
1821. Clare, Vill. Minstr., II. 197. The sweeping rack That specks like wool-flocks through the purple sky.
3. trans. To go over (a woven fabric) and remove specks or other blemishes.
1895. in Funk’s Standard Dict.
4. To convert into a mere speck.
1898. G. Meredith, Odes Fr. Hist., 90. Specked overhead, the imminent vulture wings At poise.
