Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Dapple

Dapple , noun

[Compare Icelandic depill a spot, a dot, a dog with spots over the eyes, dapi a pool, and English dimple.]

One of the spots on a dappled animal.
He has... as many eyes on his body as my gray mare hath dapples. — Sir P. Sidney

Dapple , adjective

Marked with spots of different shades of color; spotted; variegated; as, a dapple horse.
Some dapple mists still floated along the peaks. — Sir W. Scott
His steed was all dapple-gray. — Chaucer
O, swiftly can speed my dapple-gray steed. — Sir W. Scott

The word is used in composition to denote that some color is variegated or marked with spots; as, dapple-bay; dapple-gray.

Also: Dappled

Dapple , transitive verb

To variegate with spots; to spot.
The gentle day,... Dapples the drowsy east with spots of gray. — Shakespeare
The dappled pink and blushing rose. — Prior