noodly

English

Alternative forms

• noodley

Etymology

noodle +‎ -y

Adjective

noodly (comparative noodlier or more noodly, superlative noodliest or most noodly)

1. Of or pertaining to noodles (the food).
   • 1957, Moritz Jagendorf, Noodlehead Stories from Around the World, Vanguard Press, →ISBN, page 281:

     How did he get the money? In the noodliest way in the world.

   • 1981, Good Housekeeping, page 345:

     NOODLIER THAN THE NORMAL NOODLE SOUP

   • 2004, The New Yorker, page 63:

     My preferences tend toward beef noodle, chicken noodle—the noodlier soups.

   • 2015, Tim Anderson, Nanban: Japanese Soul Food, Square Peg, →ISBN:

     I got the grant and set off on a four-week tour of some of Japan’s noodliest destinations.

   • 2014, Leah Marie Brown, Faking It (The It Girl Series), Lyrical Press, →ISBN:

     They’re spicier and more noodly.

   • 2017, Ann Louise Gittleman, The Complete New Fat Flush Companion Series, McGraw-Hill Education, →ISBN, page 176:

     If you prefer a more “noodly” texture, heat them in an ungreased skillet for a few minutes.

2. (music, informal) Involving improvisation.
   • 1997 August, Douglas Wolk, “CHUG / Metalon / Alias”, in CMJ New Music Monthly, number 48, page 12:

     Mitchell likes to play off O’Malley’s singing, doubling her voice with noodlier versions of her melodies or playing call-and-response with little shrieks and tweets of feedback.

   • 1998 January 16, John Corbett, “Cradle of Electronica”, in Chicago Reader‎^[1]:

     He felt the pangs intensifying, as if the noodly, repetitive sounds were some lost language he'd known but forgotten, a dialect discarded or repressed.

   • 2002 May 17, Peter Margasak, “Cornershop”, in Chicago Reader‎^[2]:

     Both of those albums contained lots of what's charitably called filler--in the form of noodly hip-hop-inspired loops that never went anywhere--and it took the band five years to release the new Handcream for a Generation (Wiija/Beggars Banquet).

   • 2005, Paul Ford, Gary Benchley, Rock Star, Plume, →ISBN, page 290:

     For a moment I thought he might ask me if I would sing, and I was excited, and afraid of that possibility. But he said, “A little more noodly, you know? […]”

   • 2007, Clinton Heylin, Babylon's Burning: From Punk to Grunge, Canongate, →ISBN, page 231:

     Mark P’s distaste was perhaps understandable on at least one level: this was two different bands, the original band that had demoed ‘Friction’, ‘Prove It’, ‘Venus De Milo’ and ‘Marquee Moon’ two years earlier with Island’s Richard Williams; and the altogether noodlier outfit, whose ‘Torn Curtain’, ‘Guiding Light’ and ‘Elevation’ seemed set in deliberate opposition to their original, earthier, aesthetic.

   • 2008, Matt Pagett, The Best Dance Moves in the World…Ever!: 100 New and Classic Moves and How to Bust Them, San Francisco, Calif.: Chronicle Books, →ISBN, page 80:

     If the music becomes more “noodly,” why not try and trace the notes out in front of you with your fingers?

   • 2009, T. Virgil Parker, Jessica Hopsicker, Carri Anne Yager, Sausage Factory: The College Crier’s Infamous Interviews of the Freaks and the Famous, Inkwater Press, →ISBN, page 233:

     That’s one of our goals in improvisation, to come up with something that seems previously composed as opposed to a loose improvisation that’s more noodly.

   • 2019, Mark Radcliffe, Crossroads: In Search of the Moments That Changed Music, Canongate Books, →ISBN:

     They have the preeniest frontman, with his piano safely off towards the wings of the stage, the prettiest drummer, the noodliest guitarist and the quietest bass player.

3. Floppy, droopy.
   • 2006 May 12, Liz Armstrong, Heather Kenny, “Big Imagination”, in Chicago Reader‎^[3]:

     A lot of her clothes move strangely: one dress has an exaggerated, uneven bustle, upon which is layered a long skirt made of elastic, resulting in a motion that Glaum-Lathbury describes as "wiggly and noodly."

Translations

pertaining to noodles

• Esperanto: nudela