Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Dabble

Dabble (dab"b'l) , transitive verb

[Freq. of dab: compare OD. dabbelen.]

To wet by little dips or strokes; to spatter; to sprinkle; to moisten; to wet.
Bright hair dabbled in blood. — Shakespeare

Dabble , intransitive verb

1.
To play in water, as with the hands; to paddle or splash in mud or water.
Where the duck dabbles 'mid the rustling sedge. — Wordsworth
2.
To work in slight or superficial manner; to do in a small way; to tamper; to meddle.
Dabbling here and there with the text. — Atterbury
During the first year at Dumfries, Burns for the first time began to dabble in politics. — J. C. Shairp