noodle
UK [ˈnuː.dl̩] · US /ˈnu.dəl/ noun, verb
Forms noodles noodling noodled
- noun (usually in the plural) A string or flat strip of pasta or other dough, usually cooked (at least initially) by boiling, and served in soup or in a dry form mixed with a sauce and other ingredients. “She slurped a long noodle up out of her soup.”
- noun (by extension) An object which is long and thin like a noodle (sense 1).
- noun (archaic) A dumpling cooked by boiling and served in soup; a knaidel or knödel.
- noun (slang) The penis.
- noun (furry fandom) A long and slender dragon, usually an eastern dragon.
- noun (Internet slang, endearing, humorous) A borzoi dog.
- noun (dated) A person with poor judgment; a fool.
- noun (slang) The brain; the head.
- verb (transitive, obsolete) To fool or trick (someone).
- verb (intransitive, UK, dialectal, informal) To engage in frivolous behavior; to fool around or waste time.
- verb (ambitransitive, Shetland, singing) To hum or sing (a tune) at a low pitch or volume.
- verb (chiefly jazz) To play (a musical instrument or passage of music) or to sing (a passage of music) in an improvisatory or lighthearted manner; also, to play (a series of ornamental notes) on an instrument.
- verb (US, informal) To ponder or think about (something). ““Noodle that thought around for a while,” said Dr. Johnson to his Biblical Interpretations class.”
- verb (chiefly jazz) To play a musical instrument or to sing in an improvisatory or lighthearted manner; also, to play a series of ornamental notes on an instrument. “He has been noodling with that trumpet all afternoon, and every bit of it sounds awful.”
- verb To ponder or think, especially in an unproductive or unsystematic manner; to muse. “He noodled over the problem for a day or two before making a decision.”
- verb To attempt in an informal or uncertain manner; to fiddle. “If the machine is really broken, noodling with the knobs is not going to fix it.”
- verb Often followed by about or around: to mess around, to play.
- noun (chiefly jazz) An improvised passage of music played on an instrument; also, a series of ornamental notes played on an instrument; a trill.
- verb To search (mullock (“mining or ore processing waste”)) for opals.
- verb To obtain (an opal) by searching through mullock.
Synonyms
Etymology
Borrowed from Dutch noedel (“noodle”), or from its etymon German Nudel (“piece of pasta, noodle”); further etymology uncertain, probably a variant of Knödel (“dumpling”), from Middle High German knödel (“dumpling; small knot”), and then either:
* from knode, knote (“knot”) (from Old High German knodo, knoto (“knot”), perhaps ultimately related to Proto-West Germanic *knappō (“knob; boy”)) + -el (diminutive suffix); or
* from Ladin menùdli (“small dough dumpling in soup”), probably from Latin minutulus (“very small, tiny”) (in the sense of food chopped into small pieces), a diminutive of minūtus (“diminished; having been diminished”), the perfect passive participle of minuō (“to make smaller, diminish, lessen, reduce”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *mey- (“little, small”).
* French nouille, noudle, nudeln
The origin of the noun is uncertain; it is possibly a variant of noddle (“the head”). The verb is derived from the noun.
* a blend of Shetland Scots nune (“to sing softly, croon, hum”) (from Danish nynne, Norwegian nuna, nynna (“to hum; to sing”), originally imitative) + English doodle (“to play the bagpipes”) (chiefly Scotland); or
* from Norn (unattested), from Old Norse *grynta, from Proto-Germanic *grunnatjaną (“to grunt”), a frequentative of Proto-Germanic *grunnōną (“to grunt”), from Proto-Indo-European *gʰrun- (“to shout”) (and thus a doublet of grunt).
The origin of the verb is uncertain; it is possibly derived:
* from noodle (“to hum or sing (a tune) at a low pitch or volume”) (Shetland) (see etymology 3); or
* from German nudeln (“to make music or sing listlessly; to make music or sing at a low pitch or volume, or in an improvisatory manner”) (Leipzig), apparently from Nudel (“piece of pasta, noodle”) (see etymology 1) + -n (a variant of -en (suffix forming the infinitives of verbs)).
The word was probably also influenced by doodle (“to draw or scribble aimlessly”, verb).
The noun is probably derived from the verb, though the verb is first attested later. The noun was probably also influenced by doodle (“small mindless sketch”, noun).
Webster’s 1913
- noun A simpleton; a blockhead; a stupid person; a ninny. [Low]
- noun A thin strip of dough, made with eggs, rolled up, cut into small pieces, and used in soup.
Etymology [Cf. Noddle, Noddy.]
Etymology [G. nudel vermicelli.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “noodle”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details