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sprinkle

Pronunciation: /ˈspɹɪŋkəl/

The English word “sprinkle” has 9 meanings listed here.

verb

  1. To cause (a substance) to fall in fine drops (for a liquid substance) or small pieces (for a solid substance).
  2. To cover (an object) by sprinkling a substance on to it.
  3. To drip in fine drops, sometimes sporadically.
  4. To rain very lightly outside.
  5. To baptize by the application of a few drops, or a small quantity, of water; hence, to cleanse; to purify.

noun

  1. A light covering with a sprinkled substance.
  2. A light rain shower.
  3. An aspersorium or utensil for sprinkling.
  4. A small hard piece of sugar and starch, or chocolate, used to decorate cakes etc.

Etymology

From Middle English sprenkelen, sprynklen, from Middle Dutch sprenkelen, equivalent to sprink + -le (frequentative suffix). Cognate with Dutch sprenkelen (“to sprinkle”), German Low German sprenkeln (“to sprinkle; dapple”), German sprenkeln (“to sprinkle”).

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.