mottle

present singular third person mottles · participle present mottling · participle past mottled · past mottled

1. To mark with blotches of different color, or shades of color, as if stained; to spot; to maculate.

   Between the grey mist of rainclouds the sun suddenly appeared to mottle the wet asphalt of Marble Arch in patches of silver and ebony.

   1936, F.J. Thwaites, chapter XXII, in The Redemption, Sydney: H. John Edwards, published 1940, page 214

plural mottles

1. countableA distinguishing blotch of colour.
2. countableuncountableA mottled or spotted pattern.

   The most common symptom is a mild mottle on the youngest leaves of infected plants.

   1 more example

   SLRSV, being mostly latent in strawberries and other fruit crops, is of very minor importance. It can cause some mottle and decline in certain strawberry cultivars.

   1992, Quarantine Pests for Europe, Wallingford, Oxfordshire: CAB International, →ISBN, page 972

3. countableuncountableAny of several species of genus Logania of butterflies, found from Burma to the Philippines and New Guinea.