riddled
Americanadjective
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filled with, and often thoroughly weakened by, something undesirable (used in combination).
For decades taxpayers subsidized this fault-riddled nuclear plant, with its defective reactors and substandard construction.
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pierced in many places (usually used in combination).
His bullet-riddled body was found two days later.
verb
Etymology
Origin of riddled
Explanation
If an object is riddled with something, that means it's covered by that thing: for example, a tree trunk might be riddled with tiny holes made by the beaks of woodpeckers. The adjective riddled most often describes something damaged by or spread full of holes, like a rusty old mailbox riddled with bullet holes or a block of Swiss cheese riddled with holes. You can also use it figuratively: "It's so sad, her dog is riddled with cancer," or "The plot of your novel is riddled with holes — it just doesn't hold up." Riddled comes from the Old English hriddel, "sieve."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
That’s why legal briefs in the case are riddled with citations to an obscure 1915 book by a Boston lawyer named Josiah Henry Benton, who argued that historians had overlooked the practice.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 10, 2026
This is an autonomously governed region "riddled with active smuggling networks", according to a 2024 report by the international affairs think tank, Chatham House.
From BBC • May 12, 2026
Primm Valley, Whiskey Pete’s and Buffalo Bill’s all hosted at one time the famed Bonnie and Clyde V-8 Ford riddled with more than 100 bullets in 1934.
From Los Angeles Times • May 8, 2026
But this theory is entirely false, based on hastily assembled “academic” work that’s riddled with errors and lies.
From Slate • Apr. 1, 2026
The new mass of knowledge is still formless, incomplete, lacking the essential threads of connection, displaying misleading signals at every turn, riddled with blind alleys.
From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
