intermeddle

English

Etymology

From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Anglo-Norman entremedler (= Old French entremesler), from inter- + medler.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌɪntəˈmɛd(ə)l/
• IPA^(key): /ˌɪntɚˈmɛdəl/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛdəl

Verb

1. (obsolete, transitive) To mix, mingle together. [14^th-18^thc.]
   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter XV, in Le Morte Darthur, book XVII:
     :

     Ryghte soo entryd he in to the chamber and cam toward the table of syluer / and whanne he came nyghe he felte a brethe that hym thoughte hit was entremedled with fyre whiche smote hym so sore in the vysage that hym thoughte it brente vysage / and there with he felle to the erthe and had no power to aryse

2. (obsolete, reflexive) To get mixed up (with). [15^th-17^thc.]
   • Template:RQ:Florio Montaigne Essayes
3. (intransitive) To butt in, to interfere in or with. [from 15^thc.]
   • (Can we date this quote by Francis Bacon and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     The practice of Spain hath been, by war and by conditions of treaty, to intermeddle with foreign states.

   • 1749, Henry Fielding, Tom Jones, Book I, Ch.2:

     I must desire all those critics to mind their own business, and not to intermeddle with affairs or works which no ways concern them; for till they produce the authority by which they are constituted judges, I shall not plead to their jurisdiction.

Synonyms

• butt in, meddle