Dab

I dabbed my face with a towel.

Dab the tears from your eyes.

The nurse will dab some ointment on that gash.

1532-1533, Thomas More, The Confutation of Tyndale's Answer to dabbe him in the necke

Breach hit a line, Zoe Harrison dabbed a kick in behind and Abby Dow chased like fury.

Look, my bruddas don't dab, we just vossi bop

I promise you nothing,' said the dolls' dressmaker, dabbing two dabs at him with her needle, as if she put out both his eyes.

“It was the most absurd kiss. I don't believe he'd ever kissed a woman in his life before. I threw my head back, and it was a sort of slidy, pecking dab, just on the end of the chin — here.” Mrs. Hauksbee tapped her masculine little chin with her fan.

Then the minute feet made feeble dabs, or stabs, at the atmosphere; the tiny fists doubled themselves and wandered to and fro as if in search of the enemy.

She gave a few more dabs to his buttocks. “There. By the time you've made love to me those weals will have dried up.”

The men gave each other dabs and another bear hug.

I step closer to Profit and draw in a deep, steadying breath while the brothers exchange dabs. “What's up, fam? I see you finally made it.”

a dab of glue

One had Glash's dabs on it and a half-inch of Macallan at the bottom.

for little Urchin as he is, he‘s ſuch a Dab at his Bow and Arrows‘ that ne‘re a Finsbury Archer of ‘em all can pretend to come near him.

Dab, c. expert exquiſite in Roguery a Rumdab, c. a very Dextrous fellow at fileing , thieving, Cheating, Sharping, sc. Heii a Dab at it, He is well vers'd in it.

One excels at a plan or the title page, another works away at the body of the book, and the third is a dab at an index.

I hope he will like my answer; it is as good a one as I can write though nothing to his; Indeed I had always heard what a dab he was at a Love-letter.

“[…]’S’pose they’re ridin’ Vidley’s ponies?” “De Vitré’s sure to be. He’s a dab on a horse.[…]”

Business topics are discussed in a most peculiar style. One man takes the pipe from his mouth and says, "Bill made a doogheno hit this morning." "Jem," says another, to a man just entering, "you'll stand a top o' reeb?" "On," answers Jem, "I've had a trosseno tol, and have been doing dab."

One afternoon, arriving at his stall later than usual, I said, almost unknowingly, 'A doogheno or a dabheno?' Jo, who had often chaffed me for my awkward mimicking of coster language, didn't even look up from peeling his apple. 'Dab,' he said, with a little shake of his head.