dabble
pronunciation
How to pronounce dabble in British English:
UK [ˈdæbl]
How to pronounce dabble in American English:
US [ˈdæbəl]
-
- Verb:
- dip a foot or hand briefly into a liquid
- play in or as if in water, as of small children
- work with in a non-serious manner
Word Origin
- dabble (v.)
- 1550s, probably a frequentative of dab. Original meaning was "wet by splashing;" modern figurative sense of "do superficially" first recorded 1620s. Related: Dabbled; dabbling. An Ellen Dablewife is in the Lancashire Inquests from 1336.
Example
- 1. We did not dabble in raid .
- 2. Besides acting , he also did dabble singing .
- 3. He was torn by his various interests and his compulsion to dabble in many things at once .
- 4. In the early 1960s , thanks to its telecom connections , it began to dabble in early radio telephones .
- 5. That means it will soon be possible for almost anybody to make dna to order , and dabble in synthetic biology .