[f. SPECKLE sb. or back-formation from SPECKLED a. Cf. MDu. speckelen, spekelen (WFlem. spekelen, Du. spikkelen).]
1. trans. To mark with, or as with, speckles; to cover or dot (a surface, etc.) after the manner of speckles.
1570. Levins, Manip., 47. To speckle, maculare.
1611. Cotgr., Grivoler, to peckle, or speckle; to spot with diuers colours.
1648. Hexham, II. Spickelen, to Speckle, or to Spott.
1708. Sewel, II. Bespikkelen, to Speckle.
1780. Cowper, Progr. Error, 83. Dawn appears; the sportsman and his train Speckle the bosom of the distant plain.
1834. Pringle, Afr. Sk., vi. 201. So numerous were those herds that they literally speckled the face of the country.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, xli. Squads of them might have been seen, speckling with black the public-house entrances.
1854. Dickens, Hard T., III. vi. Beautiful shadows of branches flickered upon it, and speckled it.
transf. 1862. Catal. Internat. Exhib., Brit., II. No. 6449, One wonders how on earth needle-making came to speckle such a scene.
2. intr. To form speckles; to be dotted about like speckles. rare.
1820. Clare, Poems Rural Life (ed. 2), 209. And moss and ivy speckling on my eye. Ibid. (1821), Vill. Minstr., II. 15. Every thing shines round me just as then, Mole-hills, and trees, and bushes speckling wild.
