[
UK
/dˈæbəl/
]
[ US /ˈdæbəɫ/ ]
[ US /ˈdæbəɫ/ ]
VERB
- play in or as if in water, as of small children
- dip a foot or hand briefly into a liquid
-
work with in an amateurish manner
He plays around with investments but he never makes any money
She dabbles in astronomy -
bob forward and under so as to feed off the bottom of a body of water
dabbling ducks
How To Use dabble In A Sentence
- So, she ran round and round the scaffold with the executioner striking at her, and her grey hair bedabbled with blood; and even when they held her down upon the block she moved her head about to the last, resolved to be no party to her own barbarous murder. A Child's History of England
- Perhaps tools like moviolas might have more efficiently weeded out the dabblers - it's hard to say since moviolas were part of a more elitist type of technology and denied many an opportunity.
- Looking back over the many extracurricular activities that our children have dabbled in at different stages, nothing has enriched their lives more than music.
- The coffin was palled with a square of rusty black velvet, whence all the pile had long been worn, and which the soaking rain now helped age to embrown and make flabby; a standard cross was borne by an ecclesiastical official, who had on a quadrangular cap surmounted by a centre tuft; two priests followed, sheltered by umbrellas, their sacerdotal garments dabbled and draggled with mud, and showing thick-shod feet beneath the dingy serge and lawn that flapped above them, as they came along at a smart pace, suggestive of anything but solemnity. The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 18, No. 107, September, 1866
- She dabbled with cosmetic surgery. Times, Sunday Times
- He first dabbled in politics when he was at law school.
- Many of the insanities start in this fashion; and all such practices, instead of being encouraged, should be discouraged; and all experienced and intelligent students of psychical research warn those who "dabble" in the subject against the repeated and promiscuous indulgence in such practices -- because of the dangerous, even disastrous, effects upon the mind, in many instances. The Problems of Psychical Research Experiments and Theories in the Realm of the Supernormal
- The stab at rock stardom, the attempt at talk-show hosting, the game show his brother Mark unapologetically called "dopey," all those dabbles are in the past. John McEnroe's Next Frontier: Home
- Gadwalls forage mainly while swimming, either taking items from the surface or dabbling in shallow water, or diving, which they are more likely to do than most other dabblers.
- But she also dabbled in a lot of drugs. Times, Sunday Times