noodle

¹ American  

[nood-l] / ˈnud l /

noun

1. a narrow strip of unleavened egg dough that has been rolled thin and dried, boiled, and served alone or in soups, casseroles, etc.; a ribbon-shaped pasta.

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noodle ² American  

[nood-l] / ˈnud l /

noun

1. Slang.

   1. the head.

   2. the mind.

2. a fool or simpleton.

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noodle ³ American  

[nood-l] / ˈnud l /

verb (used without object)

noodled, noodling

1. to improvise a musical passage in a casual manner, especially as a warm-up exercise.

2. Informal.

   1. to play; toy.

      to noodle with numbers as a hobby.

   2. to improvise, experiment, or think creatively.

      The writers noodled for a week and came up with a better idea for the ad campaign.

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verb (used with object)

noodled, noodling

1. Informal.

   1. to manipulate or tamper with.

      She denied that she had noodled the statistics to get a favorable result.

   2. to make or devise freely as an exercise or experiment (sometimes followed byup ).

      The architects noodled up a model of a solar house.

verb phrase

1. noodle around to play, experiment, or improvise.

noodle ⁴ American  

[nood-l] / ˈnud l /

verb (used with or without object)

Chiefly Midland U.S.

noodled, noodling

1. to catch fish, especially catfish, with only one’s bare hands.

   We watched him noodle a 62-pound flathead catfish.

   Their video on how to noodle for some pretty monstrous catfish includes footage from several rivers in Oklahoma.

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noodle ¹ British  

/ ˈnuːdəl /

noun

1. a slang word for head

2. a simpleton

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noodle ² British  

/ ˈnuːdəl /

noun

1. (often plural) a ribbon-like strip of pasta: noodles are often served in soup or with a sauce

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noodle ³ British  

/ ˈnuːdəl /

verb

1. slang (intr) to improvise aimlessly on a musical instrument

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Other Word Forms

• noodler noun
• noodling noun

Etymology

Origin of noodle¹

First recorded in 1770–80; from German Nudel

Origin of noodle²

First recorded in 1745–55; perhaps variant of noddle (with oo from fool ¹ )

Origin of noodle³

An Americanism dating back to 1935–40; origin uncertain

Origin of noodle⁴

First recorded in 1920–25; origin unknown

Example Sentences

As the day wore on, he dropped off more items from hamburger joints, coffee shops, noodle stores and a Middle Eastern restaurant, then more tea, before finally calling it quits at 11:31 p.m.

From The Wall Street Journal

They slept crushed together on the floor “like noodles,” he said.

From The Wall Street Journal

"We were sick of eating instant noodles, but better than not eating, dying of hunger," she said.

From Barron's

"Even instant noodles are being fought over now. Our food is gone; we need food and rice. Access to us is completely cut off."

From BBC

"The spermine is like cheese that connects the long, thin noodles without gluing them together, making them easier to digest."

From Science Daily

Related Words

• coconut