betwattle
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
Possibly a back formation from betwattled, late 18th-century Dorset British slang for confused, bewildered.
Verb
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- (archaic, transitive, West Country) To surprise, to confound, to befuddle, to put in a distressed state of mind.
- 1996, Jo Ann Ferguson, Miss Charity's Case (Zebra Regency Romance), →ISBN:
- She would not let a man betwattle her with kisses... again.
- 2007, Jocelyn Kelley, Lost in Shadow:
- "No, you have tried to betwattle me by making the facts fit your assumption of who killed you and why."
- (archaic, intransitive, West Country) To be in a distressed state of mind.
References
- A Dictionary of Slang and Colloquial English, John S. Farmer and W. E. Henly, 1905. Betwaddled. Retrieved from archive.org
- Glossary of Provincial Words & Phrases in use in Somersetshire, Williams and Jones, 1873. Betwaddled. Retrieved online.