addle
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈæ.dəl/
rhymes: -ædəl
Forms: form: addles
form: addling
form: addled
form: addled
Etymology: From Middle English adel (“rotten”), from Old English adel, adela (“mire, pool, liquid excrement”), from Proto-West Germanic *adal, from Proto-Germanic *adalaz, *adalô (“cattle urine, liquid manure”).
Akin to Scots adill, North Frisian ethel (“urine”), Saterland Frisian adel (“dung”), Middle Low German adele (“mud, liquid manure”) (Dutch aal (“liquid manure”)), Old Swedish adel (“urine”) , Danish ajle (“liquid manure”), Bavarian Adel (“liquid manure”).
Senses: examples: text: to addle someone's brain
text: The same female bard—descended, possibly, from those terrible old Scalds who seem to have existed for the express purpose of addling the brains of mankind when they begin to investigate languages—made a standing pretence which greatly assisted in forcing me back to a number of hideous places that I would by all means have avoided.
ref: 1860 January 28 – October 13, Charles Dickens, chapter XV, in The Uncommercial Traveller, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1861, →OCLC:
text: We still had a big pay-day coming to us, and for thirty-seven days, without a drink to addle our mental processes, we incessantly planned the spending of our money.
ref: 1913 August, Jack London, John Barleycorn, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC:
text: “Oh, leave that silly old book alone. It can’t be good for you always reading. You’ll addle your brain, that’s what you’ll do, Philip.”
ref: 1915, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, Of Human Bondage, New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran Company, →OCLC:
text: [Niccolò] Machiavelli had received an early lesson in the value of addling men's brains. […] [A] talent for addling men's brains is part of the armoury of any successful prince […].
ref: 2000, Quentin Skinner, “The Adviser to Princes”, in Nigel Warburton, Jon Pike, Derek Matravers, editors, Reading Political Philosophy: Machiavelli to Mill, Abingdon, Oxon.: Routledge in association with The Open University, →ISBN, page 30:
text: Has Peppa Pig addled my brain – or is it a critique on capitalism? [title]
ref: 2020 March 8, Séamas O’Reilly, “Has Peppa Pig addled my brain – or is it a critique on capitalism?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
text: Words can addle, the propagandist knows, even in their absence.
ref: 2025 February 27, Megan Garber, “Control. Alt. Delete.”, in The Atlantic:
glosses: To make or become addled; to muddle or confuse.
examples: text: Their eggs were addled.
ref: 1782, William Cowper, Pairing Time Anticipated:
text: The term shocking or addling trout and salmon eggs is applied to the process of turning the infertile eggs white so they can be separated from the fertile ones. Actually, this amounts to nothing more than agitating the eggs enough to rupture the yolk membrane in the infertile eggs, which causes them to turn white.
ref: 1980, Earl Leitritz with Robert C[onklin] Lewis, Trout and Salmon Culture (Hatchery Methods) [California Fish Bulletin; 164], Oakland, Calif.: University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, →ISBN, page 61:
glosses: To cause fertilised eggs to lose viability, by killing the developing embryo within through shaking, piercing, freezing or oiling, without breaking the shell.
Derived terms: drug-addled