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definitions

addle

[ad-l]
See more synonyms for addle on Thesaurus.com
verb (used with or without object), ad·dled, ad·dling.
  1. to make or become confused.
  2. to make or become rotten, as eggs.
adjective
  1. mentally confused; muddled.
  2. 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. 2018

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 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.

  • "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

1
verb
  1. to make or become confused or muddled
  2. to make or become rotten
adjective
  1. (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

2
verb
  1. 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
v.

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.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper