Applying lightly

Usage examples of dabbing.

His dabbings were tentative at first, but his motions became more confident when his patient did not twitch or move during the procedure.

The mayor's madame did her routine duties—providing motherly sniffles and eye dabbings during each ceremony, then witnessing the marriage certificate signatures afterward—as stolidly as if all the principals were only local goatherd bumpkins or the even lowlier resident artists and poets.

The third year's man was dabbing a wet sponge over his face, and a couple of grinning dressers were looking on.

Dabbing at his streaming nose, Filch squinted unpleasantly at Harry who waited with bated breath for his sentence to fall.

He peeled away their replacements and began attaching crepe hair with the spirit gum, dabbing the tiny tufts in place with tweezers.

Grant and Jane followed, with Jane dabbing at the cut on Grant's cheek, crying a little as she fussed at him.

Massaging the customers' - dabbing away her tears with his Irish linen handkerchief - 'It's expand or die, Lou, is what it is these days.

Everyone in the party quickened pace at the tracker's exclamation, but Matatu reached the main pathway ahead of them and darted down it, turning his head to use the light of dawn most effectively, dabbing lightly at the earth with the tip of the peeled wild willow wand he carried.

Gia-como Paradisi was dabbing more ointment on the wounds, and Lyra tried to put what she'd seen out of her mind, and focused on Will.

A sailor carrying a tool kit slid along the axis of the ship, dabbing effortlessly at stanchions for control.

The driver was standing in the rain, dabbing at a cut on his cheek.

Adrienne asked, trailing her fingertips in the cool, sweet water of the fountain and then dabbing a few droplets at her temples.