riddle
/ˈɹɪdəl/ noun, verb, proper noun
Forms riddles riddling riddled
- noun A verbal puzzle, mystery, or other problem of an intellectual nature. “Here's a riddle: It's black, and white, and red all over. What is it?”
- noun An ancient verbal, poetic, or literary form, in which, rather than a rhyme scheme, there are parallel opposing expressions with a hidden meaning.
- verb (intransitive) To speak ambiguously or enigmatically.
- verb (transitive) To solve, answer, or explicate a riddle or question. “Riddle me this.”
- noun A sieve with coarse meshes, usually of wire, for separating coarser materials from finer, as chaff from grain, cinders from ashes, or gravel from sand.
- noun A board with a row of pins, set zigzag, between which wire is drawn to straighten it.
- verb To put something through a riddle or sieve; to sieve; to sift. “You have to riddle the gravel before you lay it on the road.”
- verb To fill with holes like a riddle. “The shots from his gun began to riddle the targets.”
- verb (figuratively) To fill or spread throughout; to pervade (with something destructive or weakening). “Your argument is riddled with errors.”
- noun (obsolete) A curtain; bedcurtain.
- noun (religious) One of the pair of curtains enclosing an altar on the north and south.
- verb (transitive, obsolete) To plait.
- proper noun A surname.
- proper noun An unincorporated community in Owyhee County, Idaho.
- proper noun An unincorporated community in Ohio Township, Crawford County, Indiana, named after George Washington Riddle.
- proper noun A city in Douglas County, Oregon.
- proper noun An unincorporated community in Ritchie County, West Virginia.
Synonyms
enigma conundrum brain-teaser decipher puzzle out unriddle absolve get to the bottom of iron out meliorate ravel reason out resolve sleuth solve tease out think out unpuzzle unravel unsolve screen permeate pervade penetrate interpenetrate diffuse imbue
Etymology
From Middle English redel, redels, from Old English rǣdels, rǣdelse (“counsel, opinion, imagination, riddle”), from Proto-West Germanic *rādislī (“counsel, conjecture”). Analyzable as rede (“advice”) + -le. Akin to Old English rǣdan (“to read, advise, interpret”). Cognate with Dutch raadsel, German Rätsel.
From Middle English riddil, ridelle (“sieve”), from Old English hriddel (“sieve”), alteration of earlier hridder, hrīder, from Proto-West Germanic *hrīdrā, from Proto-Germanic *hrīdrą, *hrīdrǭ (“sieve”), from Proto-Germanic *hrid- (“to shake”), from Proto-Indo-European *krey-. Akin to German Reiter (“sieve”), Old Norse hreinn (“pure, clean”), Old High German hreini (“pure, clean”), Gothic 𐌷𐍂𐌰𐌹𐌽𐍃 (hrains, “clean, pure”). More at rinse.
From Middle English riddel, ridel, redel, rudel, from Old French ridel ("a plaited stuff; curtain"; > Medieval Latin ridellus), from rider (“to wrinkle”), from Old High German rīdan (“to turn; wrap; twist; wrinkle”). More at writhe. Doublet of rideau.
From Middle English ridlen, from the noun (see above).
Webster’s 1913
- noun A sieve with coarse meshes, usually of wire, for separating coarser materials from finer, as chaff from grain, cinders from ashes, or gravel from sand.
- noun A board having a row of pins, set zigzag, between which wire is drawn to straighten it.
- verb To separate, as grain from the chaff, with a riddle; to pass through a riddle; as, riddle wheat; to riddle coal or gravel.
- verb To perforate so as to make like a riddle; to make many holes in; as, a house riddled with shot.
Etymology [OE. ridil, AS. hridder; akin to G. reiter, L. cribrum, and to Gr. rein clean. See Crisis, Certain.]
Etymology [For riddels, s being misunderstood as the plural ending; OE. ridels, redels. AS. rraadsel, G. räthsel; fr. AS. r to counsel or advise, also, to guess. sq. root116. Cf. Read.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “riddle”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details