Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Drunk; fuddled.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Worn-out and broken-down.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective showing the wearing effects of overwork or care or suffering
  • adjective used until no longer useful

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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Examples

  • And not only the punters: TV's Angular Ex-England Fast Bowler Punditry Eminence could be seen holding court in raddled picnic pose, a tiny plastic Viking hat on his head.

    Sozzled - how English cricket got lost in drink | Barney Ronay 2011

  • To these raddled, commitment-starved women, a certain Mr D Miliband resembles the archangel Gabriel; even David Cameron looks passably sweet.

    Why Ed reminds women of every bad ex-boyfriend Barbara Ellen 2010

  • Perhaps only Rutger Hauer could have brought the correct nuance to the role of a righteous hobo who shows up in some lawless, post-apocalyptic urban hellhole in Canada, to find the loathsome roost ruled by the sadistic Drake family – a raddled old tyrant with dyed black hair and two psycho-bully sons who dress like rejects from an 80s pop video.

    Hobo With a Shotgun – review 2011

  • And not only the punters: TV's Angular Ex-England Fast Bowler Punditry Eminence could be seen holding court in raddled picnic pose, a tiny plastic Viking hat on his head.

    Sozzled - how English cricket got lost in drink | Barney Ronay 2011

  • Let's hear it for the raddled TV sport personality

    Channel Four's Famous and Fearless was utterly pointless | Martin Kelner 2011

  • She was a little grotesque, a raddled caricature of a fading beauty.

    Portraits of the artists 2011

  • But it is difficult to see whether anyone still emotionally invested in Courtney Love's raddled muse will be able to take succour from them at the end of such a misfiring album.

    Hole: Nobody's Daughter 2010

  • Shaun Ryder and Mark E Smith, seemingly beneficiaries of a Make-a-Wish foundation for raddled northern indie icons, attack their roles on DARE and Glitter Freeze with wonky charisma.

    Gorillaz at Glastonbury 2010 2010

  • The saddest thing about these adorable patterns is that they're often uncut ... because adolescent girls either want to draw as little attention to themselves as possible, or they want to dress like raddled divorceés who drink in the afternoon.

    January 2010 2010

  • Though painful to look at, you feel that she has captured the truth about Andy, not an enigmatic superstar, but a miserable, raddled wreck.

    Alice Neel Retrospective Exposes Life's Truths 2010

Comments

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  • highly rouged

    November 30, 2011

  • WORD:raddled

    DEFINITION: In the example which follows, Vonnegut may be using this word in a dual sense:

    1.In the usual sense of "raddled" --- "worn-out and broken-down" (Wiktionary); and also

    2. "matted" -- "adj. forming a thick tangled mess" --- Wiktionary. See also definitions for "raddle," which describe hedges, fences, etc., woven or twisted together.

    EXAMPLE:

    ' He pointed his wife out to me. She was a scrawny, thin-lipped woman with raddled hair and bad teeth. She was sitting in a booth with an untouched beer before her. She was obviously a lunatic herself, watching us with the harrowing cuteness of schizophrenia. '

    --- 2009. KURT VONNEGUT. Look at the Birdie. (Previously unpublished short fiction, posthumously collected, with a foreword by Sidney Offit). ISBN 978-0-385-34371-8. Title story "Look at the Birdie." (Page 215).

    NOTE: In the right context, cunning and "cuteness" can be synonymous. See Wiktionary.

    May 10, 2014