addle

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈæ.dəl/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ædəl

Etymology 1

From Middle English addlen, adlen, from Old English edlēan (“reward, pay-back”), edlēanian (“to reward, recompense”); or from or cognate with Old Norse ǫðlask (“to gain possession of property”), from ōðal (“owndom, property”).

Verb

addle (third-person singular simple present addles, present participle addling, simple past and past participle addled)

1. (provincial, Northern England) To earn, earn by labor; earn money or one's living.
   • 1855, "An inhabitant" [pseudonym; Francis Kildale Robinson], A Glossary of Yorkshire Words and Phrases, Collected in Whitby and the Neighbourhood. With Examples of their Colloquial Use, and Allusions to Local Customs and Traditions, London: John Russell Smith, 36, Soho Square, →OCLC, page 2:

     ADDLINGS, wages. "Poor addlings," small pay for work. "Hard addlings," money laboriously acquired. "Saving's good addling," as the well known saying, "a penny saved is a penny gained."

   • 1862, anonymous [C. Clough Robinson], The Dialect of Leeds and Its Neighbourhood, London: John Russell Smith, page 233:

     ADDLE. To earn. "It's weel-addled" – well-earned. "Addle nowt an' ware at t' end on 't, an' tha'll soin ha' to leuk raand t' corners." – Earn nothing and spend hard, and you'll soon come to poverty.

2. (provincial, Northern England) To thrive or grow; to ripen.
   • 1557 February 13 (Gregorian calendar), Thomas Tusser, A Hundreth Good Pointes of Husbandrie, London: […] Richard Tottel, →OCLC; republished London: […] Robert Triphook, […], and William Sancho, […], 1810, →OCLC:

     Kill ivy, or else tree will addle no more.

Etymology 2

From Middle English adel (“rotten”), from Old English adel, adela (“mire, pool, liquid excrement”), from Proto-West Germanic *adal, from Proto-Germanic *adalaz, *adalô (“cattle urine, liquid manure”).

Akin to Scots adill, North Frisian ethel (“urine”), Saterland Frisian adel "dung", Middle Low German adele "mud, liquid manure" (Dutch aal "puddle"), Old Swedish adel "urine", Danish ajle (“liquid manure”), Bavarian Adel (“liquid manure”).

Adjective

addle (comparative more addle, superlative most addle)

1. Having lost the power of development, and become rotten; putrid.

   addle eggs

   • c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:

     Pan. Troilus! Why, he esteems her no more than I esteem an addle egg.
     Cres. If you love an addle egg as well as you love an idle head, you would eat chickens i' the shell.

2. (by extension) Unfruitful or confused; muddled.

   addle brains

   • 1690, [John] Dryden, Don Sebastian, King of Portugal: […], London: […] Jo. Hindmarsh, […], →OCLC, (please specify the page number):
     (prologue)

     Thus far the poet; but his brains grow addle,

Derived terms

• addle-brain
• addlebrained
• addlehead
• addleheaded
• addlement
• addleness
• addle pate
• addlepated
• addle plot
• addlings

 

Translations

rotten

• Finnish: mätä (fi)
• German: verwelkt (de), verrottet (de)
• Hungarian: záp (hu)
• Middle English: adel
• Russian: ту́хлый (ru) m (túxlyj)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: покварен m

  Roman: pokvaren (sh) m

confused

• German: verwirrt (de), durcheinander (de)

Noun

addle (plural addles)

1. (obsolete) Liquid filth; mire.

Verb

addle (third-person singular simple present addles, present participle addling, simple past and past participle addled)

1. To make addle; to grow addle; to muddle.
   • 1782, William Cowper, Pairing Time Anticipated:

     Their eggs were addled.

   • 2000, Quentin Skinner, “The Adviser to Princes”, in Nigel Warburton; Jon Pike; Derek Matravers, Reading Political Philosophy: Machiavelli to Mill, Abingdon, Oxon.: Routledge in association with The Open University, 978-0-415-21196-3, page 30:

     [Niccolò] Machiavelli had received an early lesson in the value of addling men's brains. […] [A] talent for addling men's brains is part of the armoury of any successful prince […] .

2. To cause fertilised eggs to lose viability, by killing the developing embryo within through shaking, piercing, freezing or oiling, without breaking the shell.
   • 1980, Earl Leitritz with Robert C[onklin] Lewis, Trout and Salmon Culture (Hatchery Methods) [California Fish Bulletin; 164], Oakland, Calif.: University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, →ISBN, page 61:

     The term shocking or addling trout and salmon eggs is applied to the process of turning the infertile eggs white so they can be separated from the fertile ones. Actually, this amounts to nothing more than agitating the eggs enough to rupture the yolk membrane in the infertile eggs, which causes them to turn white.

Derived terms

Derived terms

• drug-addled

Translations

to make addle

• Bulgarian: развалям (bg) (razvaljam), вмирисвам (vmirisvam)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: збунити, смести, помести

  Roman: zbuniti (sh), smesti (sh), pomesti (sh)

• Spanish: confundir (es), enturbiar (es)

to grow addle

• Bulgarian: развалям се (razvaljam se), вмирисвам се (vmirisvam se)
• Galician: gorar (gl)
• Hungarian: megzápul (hu)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: збунити се, смести се

  Roman: zbuniti se (sh), smesti se (sh)

Noun

addle (plural addles)

1. A foolish or dull-witted fellow.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “addle”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Anagrams

• daled, dedal, laded

Old Prussian

Etymology

From Proto-Balto-Slavic *edlis, potentially from Proto-Indo-European *h₁edʰ-l-; Cognates include Latvian egle (“spruce, fir”), Lithuanian ẽglė (“spruce”) and descendants of Proto-Slavic *ȅdlь (“spruce”). Likely also related to Latin ebulum (“red elderberry”) and its cognates.

Noun

addle

1. fir (tree)
   • Elbing German-Prussian Vocabulary

     Tanne   Addle

Scots

Alternative forms

• addil, aidle, aidil, adle

Etymology

From Middle English adel (“rotten”), from Old English adel, adela (“mire, pool, liquid excrement”), from Proto-West Germanic *adal.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɑdl/, /ˈedl/

Adjective

addle

1. foul, putrid, issuing from a cowhouse or dunghill.

Noun

addle

1. foul and putrid water, ditch water, byre wash, liquid manure.
2. The urine of black cattle.

Verb

addle

1. To water the roots of plants with the urine of cattle.

References

• “addle, n., adj., v.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC.