dial. [Perhaps a frequentative f. STAB v.: see -LE. (For the assumed sense-development cf. POACH v.2 4, 5; see also STABLE v.3)] a. trans. To soil (a place) by treading dirt about. b. intr. To tread dirt about. c. trans. To reduce (ground) to mire or liquid mud by continual treading.
1838. Holloway, Provinc., To stabble, to dirty any place, by walking on it with wet and filthy shoes. Hants.
1856. Miss Yonge, Daisy Chain, XV. 148. The woman said she would not take half-a-crown a week to have a lot of children stabbling about, as she called it.
1858. Hughes, Scour. White Horse, vii. T’aint a mossell o’ use to bide stabbleing here [Footnote. ‘Stabble’—to tread dirt about].
1893. Wiltshire Gloss., Stabble,… to poach up [ground] by continual treading, as near a field gateway.
