[f. the sb.]
1. trans. To cover with freckled or spots.
1613. Chapman, Revenge Bussy D’Ambois, Plays, 1873, II. 107.
| Not showing her before I speake, the bloud | |
| She so much thirsts for, freckling hands and face. |
1823. J. Badcock, Dom. Amusem., 68. Persons naturally with brown skins, are blistered or freckled less than those who are fairer.
1844. Hood, Discov. in Astron., ii.
| ‘Lord, master!’ muttered John, a liveried elf, | |
| ‘To wonder so at spots upon the sun! | |
| I ’ll tell you what he ’s done,— | |
| Freckled himself!’ |
b. intr. To appear in spots or patches.
1821. Clare, The Village Minstrel, and Other Poems, I. 207. Solitude.
| As ’neath hazels I have stood | |
| In the gloomy hanging wood, | |
| Where the sunbeams, filtering small, | |
| Freckling through the branches fall. | |
| Ibid., II. 201. Sonnets. liii. May-Noon. | |
| Or where the sunshine freckles on the eye | |
| Through the half-clothed branches in the woods. |
2. intr. To become marked with freckles.
1842. Thackeray, Fitz-Boodle’s Conf., Wks. 1869, XXII. 220. And those fair complexions, they freckle so, that really Miss Blanche ought to be called Miss Brown.
1889. Anstey, Pariah, I. iv. You know I never freckle.
