meddle
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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English [edit]
Etymology [edit]
From Anglo-Norman medler, variant of Anglo-Norman and Old French mesler, meller, from Late Latin misculare, from Latin miscere (“to mix”).
Pronunciation [edit]
- (UK) IPA: /ˈmɛd.əl/, /ˈmɛdl̩/, X-SAMPA: /"mEd@l/, /"mEdl=/
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Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ɛdəl
- Homophones: medal, metal, mettle (in accents with flapping)
Verb [edit]
meddle (third-person singular simple present meddles, present participle meddling, simple past and past participle meddled)
- (obsolete) To mix (something) with some other substance; to commingle, combine, blend. [14th-17th c.]
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.i:
- he cut a locke of all their heare, / Which medling with their bloud and earth, he threw / Into the graue [...].
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.i:
- (intransitive, now US regional) To have sex. [from 14th c.]
- 1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book XVII:
- And in the same tyme that they medled togydirs, Abell was begotyn.
- 1621, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, II.5.1.v:
- Take a ram's head that never meddled with an ewe, cut off at a blow, and the horns only taken away, boil it well, skin and wool together [...].
- 1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book XVII:
- To interfere in or with; to concern oneself with unduly. [from 14th c.]
Derived terms [edit]
Translations [edit]
to mix with other substance
to have sex — see have sex
to interfere in affairs
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