addle

[ad-l]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR addle ON THESAURUS.COM

verb (used with or without object), ad·dled, ad·dling.

to make or become confused.

to make or become rotten, as eggs.

adjective

mentally confused; muddled.

rotten: addle eggs.

Origin of addle

before 1000; Middle English adel rotten, Old English adela liquid, filth; cognate with Middle Low German adele liquid manure

Related formsun·ad·dled, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Related Words for addle

mystify, baffle, perplex, bewilder, discombobulate, befuddle, muddy, disconcert, muddle, confound, puzzle, fuddle

Examples from the Web for addle

Historical Examples of addle

My head, too, is as addle as an egg this morning, with dining abroad yesterday.
The Letters of Robert Burns
Robert Burns
The fumes of the wine were mounting steadily to addle his indifferent brains.
The Snare
Rafael Sabatini
My strong ale must have got into your addle pate with a vengeance.
Windsor Castle
William Harrison Ainsworth
One drink will addle a person's wits and the second will act as an antidote.
Death Makes A Mistake
P.F. Costello
"Don't sit on them with your head downward, or you'll addle them," said Mr. Brush, fiercely.
Peg Woffington
Charles Reade

British Dictionary definitions for addle

addle

verb

to make or become confused or muddled

to make or become rotten

adjective

(in combination) indicating a confused or muddled stateaddle-brained; addle-pated

Word Origin for addle

C18: (vb), back formation from addled, from c13 addle rotten, from Old English adela filth; related to dialect German Addel liquid manure

addle

verb

Northern English dialect to earn (money or one's living)

Word Origin for addle

C13: addlen, from Old Norse öthlask to gain possession of property, from ōthal property

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for addle

1712, from addle (n.) "urine, liquid filth," from Old English adela "mud, mire, liquid manure" (cognate with Old Swedish adel "urine," Middle Low German adel, Dutch aal "puddle").

Used in noun phrase addle egg (mid-13c.) "egg that does not hatch, rotten egg," literally "urine egg," a loan-translation of Latin ovum urinum, which is itself an erroneous loan-translation of Greek ourion oon "putrid egg," literally "wind egg," from ourios "of the wind" (confused by Roman writers with ourios "of urine," from ouron "urine"). Because of this usage, from c.1600 the noun in English was taken as an adjective meaning "putrid," and thence given a figurative extension to "empty, vain, idle," also "confused, muddled, unsound" (1706). The verb followed a like course. Related: Addled; addling.