piebald

[ pahy-bawld ]

adjective

1. having patches of black and white or of other colors; parti-colored.

   Synonyms: mottled, dappled

noun

1. a piebald animal, especially a horse.

piebald

/ ˈpaɪˌbɔːld /

adjective

1. marked or spotted in two different colours, esp black and white

   a piebald horse

noun

1. a black-and-white pied horse

Other Words From

• piebaldly adverb
• piebaldness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of piebald¹

1580–90; pie ² ( pied ) + bald

Word History and Origins

Origin of piebald¹

C16: pie ² + bald ; see also pied

Example Sentences

Another great success was “Strider,” Mark Rozovsky’s play with music based on a Tolstoy story about a piebald horse that is tormented because of its appearance.

From New York Times

Connor has created a soft-focus community that reads like a contemporary Grover’s Corners with its quirky assortment of kind adults and its cozy woodland setting populated with songbirds and even a fabled piebald deer.

From New York Times

Boo’ya Moon is nicely rendered — it has the feel of 19th-century fantasy paintings — and its monster more elaborately imagined than in the novel, which will only have you looking up the definition of “piebald.”

From Los Angeles Times

Pigeons could be made to look like roosters and peacocks, and dogs made short-haired, long-haired, pied, piebald, bowlegged, hairless, crop-tailed, vicious, mild-mannered, diffident, guarded, belligerent.

From Literature

His fierce eye gazed out across the mighty army: black rats, brown rats, grey rats, piebald rats, skulking weasels, furtive stoats and sinuous ferrets, all gathered round, their weapons glistening and dripping with the rain.

From Literature