addle

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Definitions (21)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. transitive verb To muddle; confuse: "My brain is a bit addled by whiskey” (Eugene O'Neill). See Synonyms at confuse.
  2. intransitive verb To become confused.
  3. intransitive verb To become rotten, as an egg.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (11)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (5)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (2)

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Examples (50)

  • She was nothing like his addle-witted mother and even less like his vapid sisters. —  Teresa Medeiros - Once An Angel
  • I was momentarily confused between celebrities and addle-pated old men, shuffling and muttering away in the attic. mk - McCain is a famous person, yes. —  QandO
  • She has been trying to learn the secrets of the place from the garden keeper, Utnapishtim, for some time, but her aggressive tactics have put the addle-brained elder on guard. —  IGN PC
  • Whatever is in the water here in IL that turns our politicians corrupt must have run into the Mississippi, penetrated the Iowa water supply and turned their judges into addle-brained idiots. —  Latest Articles
  • The Epicure's Lament, the tale ends without truly wrapping up, intimating things that are to come yet not spelling the ending out for the addle brained or the intensely curious. —  Epinions Recent Content for Home
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

Used in the same contextWord Family

addle:   addled
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (5)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. From Middle English adel, rotten, from Old English adel, pool of excrement.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (4)

  1. from Middle English adel (as in adel ey, addle egg), orig. a noun, from Anglo-Saxon adela, mud, = Middle Low German adele, mud, = East Friesic adel, dung (later adelig, foul, comp. adelpol, addle-pool; cf. Lowland Scots addle dub, a filthy pool), = Old Swedish adel, in comp. ko-adel, cow-urine. No connection with Anglo-Saxon ādl, disease.
  2. from addle, a.
  3. English dial., also eddle, from Middle English addlen, adlen, earn, gain, Icelandic ödhla, in reflexive ödhlask, spelled also ædhlask, win, gain, from ōdhal, patrimony,=Anglo-Saxon ēthel, home, dwelling, property.
  4. from addle, v.
 

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/ˈædl/
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