riddle

¹

[ rid-l ]

noun

1. a question or statement so framed as to exercise one's ingenuity in answering it or discovering its meaning; conundrum.
2. a puzzling question, problem, or matter.
3. a puzzling thing or person.
4. any enigmatic or dark saying or speech.

verb (used without object)

, rid·dled, rid·dling.

1. to propound riddles; speak enigmatically.

riddle

²

[ rid-l ]

verb (used with object)

, rid·dled, rid·dling.

1. to pierce with many holes, suggesting those of a sieve:

   to riddle the target.

2. to fill or affect with (something undesirable, weakening, etc.):

   a government riddled with graft.

3. to impair or refute completely by persistent verbal attacks:

   to riddle a person's reputation.

4. to sift through a riddle, as gravel; screen.

noun

1. a coarse sieve, as one for sifting sand in a foundry.

riddle

¹

/ ˈrɪdəl /

verb

1. usually foll by with to pierce or perforate with numerous holes

   riddled with bullets

2. to damage or impair
3. to put through a sieve; sift
4. to fill or pervade

   the report was riddled with errors

noun

1. a sieve, esp a coarse one used for sand, grain, etc

riddle

²

/ ˈrɪdəl /

noun

1. a question, puzzle, or verse so phrased that ingenuity is required for elucidation of the answer or meaning; conundrum
2. a person or thing that puzzles, perplexes, or confuses; enigma

verb

1. to solve, explain, or interpret (a riddle or riddles)
2. intr to speak in riddles

Derived Forms

• ˈriddler, noun
• ˈriddler, noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of riddle¹

First recorded before 1000; Middle English noun redel, redels, Old English rǣdels(e) “counsel, opinion, imagination, riddle” + -els(e) noun suffix; cognate with German Rätsel, Dutch raadsel; rede

Origin of riddle²

First recorded before 1100; Middle English noun riddil, Old English hriddel, variant of hridder, hrīder; cognate with German Reiter; akin to Latin crībrum “sieve”; verb derivative of the noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of riddle¹

Old English hriddel a sieve, variant of hridder ; related to Latin crībrum sieve

Origin of riddle²

Old English rǣdelle, rǣdelse , from rǣd counsel; related to Old Saxon rādislo , German Rätsel

Synonym Study

See puzzle.

Example Sentences

This riddle is best solved by asking an actual small-business owner.

From Freakonomics

The riddle was reported August 14 in Physical Review Letters.

From Science News For Students

Just as the denominator in the original riddle was 53, here it was N3.

From FiveThirtyEight

Sounds like the makings of another riddle…Congratulations to Tobias Tapirello of Budapest, Hungary, winner of last week’s Riddler Classic.

From FiveThirtyEight

To solve the riddle, Hofgartner and his colleagues revisited data from the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, the Green Bank Observatory in West Virginia and the Cassini spacecraft.

From Science News

Dickinson did this as a game and a test—she loved riddles and turned herself into a riddle wrapped in her own lines.

From The Daily Beast

The question, almost akin to a riddle, is certainly a relevant one to anybody in a creative field.

From The Daily Beast

Able-bodied people rarely notice the barriers that riddle the world which keep the disabled from participating in society.

From The Daily Beast

When Scott Kleinberg wrote about the riddle for The Chicago Tribune, he changed the answer.

From The Daily Beast

Some will send paragraph-long descriptions of why the riddle is ‘flawed.’

From The Daily Beast

Men of science strove to read the riddle of life; to guide and to succour their fellow creatures.

From Project Gutenberg

To him who flees love, its nature is explicable; to you, who are still under its influence, it remains a riddle.

From Project Gutenberg

It was on them that I began to spell out those signs which to the learned reveal a few faint traces of the Mighty Riddle.

From Project Gutenberg

The dossier is not complete, but, such as it is, it furnishes a riddle in which the supernatural appears to play a part.

From Project Gutenberg

I like secrets—especially those which concern women—well enough to have amused myself by seeking the clue to the riddle.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• corrupt
• infest
• mar
• pepper
• pervade
• puncture