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Glite Dictionary
🔬 A tiny spot 🟤 To spot
to speck

to speck

1 5.6
To mark something with small spots
  • verb
  • /spɛk/
translation icon : salpicar
  • The dog ran through the garden, specking its fur with dirt and leaves.
  • fly-specked
  • pale and specked
  • specked white

Examples

  • Thanks to my mum who sent over trinkets from the USA where she lives, the blue and white specked crockery and pans are American.

    Blog text (10)

  • This was one of those fifties kitchens with shiny bare walls, enormous white appliances, and rust-specked white metal cabinets and drawers.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • It's a little speck of sponge and they just speck all over the face.

  • The collar of his bathrobe is specked with dandruff.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • The bulkheads were invisible beyond the projection of star-specked space and the blue-white shape of a life-bearing world.

    Fiction book (1992)

  • Yet, he pulled up the quilt; her feet were encased in pale pink socks specked with shamrocks.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • On the table was a cut box of purplish crystal-specked stone, similar in appearance to the temple structures on the summits of Mayan pyramids.

    Fiction book (1999)

  • Our kind, like other earthly creatures, was born and came of age in the rhythmic recurrence of night and moon, the specked and clouded brilliance of the Milky Way.

    Academic text (2007)

  • Often, lately, her body keeps her beached, though today the sun beckons, the dogwoods blooming white, the peonies' glossy buds specked black with ants.

    Fiction book (2000)

  • The artist specked the canvas with tiny dots of paint for added texture.

Synonyms

to dust
vsto speck
54 2.5

To cover something with a light layer of fine powder

uses visible tiny spots rather than a fine even powder covering
to spot
vsto speck
46 2.2

To make a small mark or stain on something

means simple tiny marking rather than staining or identification use
to dot
vsto speck
39 3.0

To appear as small marks across an area, like stars in the sky

emphasizes tiny scattered dots rather than general scattering across area
to speckle
vsto speck
15 3.9

To cover something with many small spots of a different color

focuses on simple small spots rather than many patched areas
to spatter
vsto speck
14 5.0

To splash small drops onto a surface and make spots

is gentler, meaning to apply tiny dry or nonliquid spots
to fleck
vsto speck
10 6.0

To mark a surface with small spots of color or light

uses simple tiny spots rather than color or light patches
to dapple
vsto speck
5 7.2

To make small spots of a different color on something

uses small discrete spots rather than larger patchy shading
to stipple
vsto speck
  • Specialized
4 7.9

To make a picture or texture with many small dots

is the general act of marking with small spots outside art
to mottle
vsto speck
3 8.0

To make something have uneven spots or patches of color

uses uniform tiny dots rather than varied blotches or streaks
to smatter
vsto speck
  • Archaic
1 8.8

To cover with small drops or spots like mud and paint

is more about making tiny visible spots rather than amounts
to bespeckle
vsto speck
9.6

To mark something with small spots

is the same meaning but is the shorter common form

How Covered

to cover
∞ 1.0
to stain
113 3.2
to spot
46 2.2
to speck
1 5.6
to dot
42 1.0

Surface Forms

speck infinitive
specked past
specked past participle
specking present participle
specks third person singular

Etymology

Speck as a verb comes from the same idea as speckle, meaning 'to make many small spots'. So to speck something is to mark or cover it with tiny dots or particles.