peddle
Americanverb (used with object)
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to carry (small articles, goods, wares, etc.) from place to place for sale at retail; hawk.
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to deal out, distribute, or dispense, especially in small quantities.
to peddle radical ideas.
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to sell (drugs) illicitly.
verb (used without object)
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to go from place to place with goods, wares, etc., for sale at retail.
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to occupy oneself with trifles; trifle.
verb
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to go from place to place selling (goods, esp small articles)
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(tr) to sell (illegal drugs, esp narcotics)
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(tr) to advocate (ideas) persistently or importunately
to peddle a new philosophy
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archaic (intr) to trifle
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of peddle
First recorded in 1525–35; apparently back formation from peddler; peddle in def. 5, reinforced by piddle
Explanation
When you peddle something, you go out and try to sell it. It's cute when a little kid peddles his homemade birthday cards around the neighborhood, but if an adult did that it might be annoying. The classic image of someone who peddles is an old-fashioned "peddler" or "tinker" traveling from village to village selling goods. The verb peddle, in fact, comes from the word "peddler," whose origin is a mystery. Any time you sell something by going from place to place, like selling Girl Scout cookies to all your neighbors, you peddle.
Vocabulary lists containing peddle
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
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The Circuit
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Commonly Confused Words, List 2
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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.
Now, decades years later, the director Daniel Peddle follows up with his former subjects, in the documentary “Beyond the Aggressives: 25 Years Later.”
From New York Times • Nov. 17, 2023
Val Peddle, 81, who has dementia, had been unable to attend because of Covid restrictions - so her granddaughter Kirsty Thomas arrived at Ty Ynysawdre care home in Bridgend in her wedding dress.
From BBC • Jul. 15, 2021
Chuck Peddle, the engineer and entrepreneur who helped launch the age of the personal computer after designing a microprocessor that sold for a mere $25, died Dec. 15 at his home in Santa Cruz, California.
From Seattle Times • Dec. 24, 2019
“Sunset Edge,” a first feature by Daniel Peddle, is full of striking images but badly overestimates the entertainment value of abandoned trailer parks for the average moviegoer.
From New York Times • May 28, 2015
“All right, Peddle, I can find my way about,” said Doggie, dismissing the old butler and his wife after a little colloquy in the hall.
From The Rough Road by Locke, William John
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.
