croodle

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English[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

Compare cruddle, crudle.

Verb[edit]

croodle (third-person singular simple present croodles, present participle croodling, simple past and past participle croodled)

  1. (UK, dialect, obsolete) To cower or cuddle together, as from fear or cold; to lie close and snug together, as pigs in straw.
    • a. 1810, Robert Tannahill, The Wood O' Craigie Lea:
      Far ben thy dark green plantin's shade
      The cushat croodles am'rously
    • 1858 January, Charles Kingsley, “My Winter-Garden”, in Frasers Magazine:
      Oh! that I had wings-not as a dove , to fly home to its nest and croodle there
    • 1898, William Edwards Tirebuck, Meg of the Scarlet Fool:
      Mrs. Dootson bridged the other half, and, croodling down to Meg's height, she somewhat forced the friendship
  2. (UK, dialect, obsolete) To fawn or coax.

Etymology 2[edit]

Onomatopoeic "croo" + -le.

Verb[edit]

croodle (third-person singular simple present croodles, present participle croodling, simple past and past participle croodled)

  1. (originally Scotland, dialect) To make a cooing sound.
    • 1899, Zoologist:
      Too dark to see well, but judge from movements of old bird's head and croodling noise.
    • 2017, Thomas Rohrer, Worms Drowning in the Rain[1]:
      Do pigeons croodle, or only doves?

Noun[edit]

croodle (plural croodles)

  1. Such a bird vocalisation, especially that given by doves.
    • 1888, Gordon Stables, In Touch with Nature: Tales and Sketches from the Life, page 46:
      [A]nd no sound falls on my ears, except the distant roar of a passing train, the song of linnets, and croodle of turtle-dove and cushat.
    • 1997, Aidan Higgins, Flotsam and Jetsam, page 265:
      [A] third-storey apartment under the eaves loud with the croodles and canoodling of amorous pigeons.

References[edit]

croodle”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams[edit]