betwattle

English

Alternative forms

• betwaddle

Etymology

Possibly a back formation from betwattled, late 18th-century Dorset British slang for confused, bewildered.

Verb

betwattle (third-person singular simple present betwattles, present participle betwattling, simple past and past participle betwattled)

1. (archaic, transitive, West Country) To surprise, to confound, to befuddle, to put in a distressed state of mind.
   • 1996, Jo Ann Ferguson, Miss Charity's Case (Zebra Regency Romance), →ISBN:

     She would not let a man betwattle her with kisses... again.

   • 2007, Jocelyn Kelley, Lost in Shadow:

     "No, you have tried to betwattle me by making the facts fit your assumption of who killed you and why."

2. (archaic, intransitive, West Country) To be in a distressed state of mind.

References

• A Dictionary of Slang and Colloquial English, John S. Farmer and W. E. Henly, 1905. Betwaddled. Retrieved from archive.org
• Glossary of Provincial Words & Phrases in use in Somersetshire, Williams and Jones, 1873. Betwaddled. Retrieved online.