Collins COBUILD Advanced Learner's English Dictionary - dappled

You use dappled to describe something that has dark or light patches on it, or that is made up of patches of light and shade. ...a dappled horse... The path was dappled with sunlight. ADJ: ADJ n, v-link ADJ with/by/in n DARE (dares, daring, dared) Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. Note: 'Dare' sometimes behaves like an ordinary verb, for example ‘He dared to speak’ and ‘He doesn’t dare to speak’ and sometimes like a modal, for example ‘He daren’t speak’. 1. If you do not dare to do something, you do not have enough courage to do it, or you do not want to do it because you fear the consequences. If you dare to do something, you do something which requires a lot of courage. Most people hate Harry but they don’t dare to say so... We have had problems in our family that I didn’t dare tell Uncle. VERB: oft with brd-neg, V to-inf, V inf • Dare is also a modal. Dare she risk staying where she was?... The government dare not raise interest rates again... ‘Are you coming with me?’—‘I can’t, Alice. I daren’t.’ MODAL 2. If you dare someone to do something, you challenge them to prove that they are not frightened of doing it. Over coffee, she lit a cigarette, her eyes daring him to comment... VERB: V n to-inf 3. A dare is a challenge which one person gives to another to do something dangerous or frightening. When found, the children said they’d run away for a dare. N-COUNT: usu sing, usu as/for/on a N 4. If you say to someone ‘don’t you dare’ do something, you are telling them not to do it and letting them know that you are angry. (SPOKEN) Allen, don’t you dare go anywhere else, you hear? PHRASE: oft PHR inf c darkgreen]feelings 5. You say ‘how dare you’’ when you are very shocked and angry about something that someone has done. (SPOKEN) How dare you pick up the phone and listen in on my conversations!... PHRASE: usu PHR inf c darkgreen]feelings 6. You use ‘dare I say it’ when you know that what you are going to say will disappoint or annoy someone. Politicians usually attract younger women, dare I say it, because of the status they have in society. PHRASE: PHR with cl c darkgreen]politeness 7. You can use ‘I dare say’ or ‘I daresay’ before or after a statement to indicate that you believe it is probably true. = I suppose PHRASE: PHR that, cl PHR