meddle

English

Etymology

From Middle English medlen, from Anglo-Norman medler, variant of Anglo-Norman and Old French mesler, meller, from Vulgar Latin *misculō, from Latin misceō (“to mix”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈmɛd.əl/, /ˈmɛdl̩/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛdəl
• Homophones: medal, metal, mettle (in accents with flapping)

Verb

2. To interfere in or with; to concern oneself with unduly. [from 14^thc.]
   • Bible, 2 Kings xiv.10:

     Why shouldst thou meddle to thy hurt?

   • (Can we date this quote by John Locke and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     The civil lawyers […] have meddled in a matter that belongs not to them.

   • 2017 January 14, “Thailand's new king rejects the army's proposed constitution”, in The Economist‎^[1]:

     There is much to dislike about the proposed constitution, which will keep elected governments beholden to a senate nominated by the junta and to a suite of meddling committees.

3. (obsolete) To interest or engage oneself; to have to do (with), in a good sense.
   • (Can we date this quote by Tyndale and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     Study to be quiet, and to meddle with your own business.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Barrow to this entry?)

4. (obsolete) To mix (something) with some other substance; to commingle, combine, blend. [14^th-17^thc.]
   • 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 […].

5. (intransitive, now US regional) To have sex. [from 14^thc.]
   • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter V, in Le Morte Darthur, book XVII:
     :

     But after god came to Adam and bad hym knowe his wyf flesshly as nature requyred / Soo lay Adam with his wyf vnder the same tree / and anone the tree whiche was whyte and ful grene as ony grasse and alle that came oute of hit / and in the same tyme that they medled to gyders there was Abel begoten / thus was the tree longe of grene colour

   • 1621, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy, […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and Iames Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition II, section 5, member 1, subsection 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 […].

Derived terms

• meddle and make
• meddlement
• meddlesome
• meddler

Translations

to interfere in affairs

• Bulgarian: меся се (mesja se)
• Catalan: ficar-se (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 插手 (zh) (chāshǒu), 干預 (zh) (gānyù), 干预 (zh) (gānyù)

• Czech: vměšovat
• Dutch: zich (nl) moeien (nl), tussenkomen (nl), bemoeien (nl)
• Finnish: sekaantua (fi), sotkeentua (fi), sotkeutua (fi)
• French: se mêler (fr)
• German: sich einmischen (de)
• Greek: ανακατεύομαι (el) (anakatévomai)

  Ancient Greek: πολυπραγμονέω (polupragmonéō)

• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Hebrew: התערב
• Italian: immischiarsi (it)
• Japanese: おせっかいをする (o-sekkai-o suru)
• Latin: admisceō, immisceo
• Maori: raweke, auwaha, rahurahu, haukeke, hūrau, whawhe
• Portuguese: intrometer (pt)
• Romanian: a se băga, a se amesteca, a-și băga nasul unde nu-i fierbe oala, a interveni
• Russian: вме́шиваться (ru) impf (vméšivatʹsja), вмеша́ться (ru) pf (vmešátʹsja), лезть (ru) impf (leztʹ) (disapprobative)
• Spanish: entrometerse (es), inmiscuirse (es), injerirse (es), mangonear (es) (colloquial)
• Swedish: lägga sig i (sv)
• Tagalog: manghimasok, makialam

to mix with other substance

• Finnish: sekoittaa (fi)
• Georgian: შეურევს (šeurevs)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Russian: сме́шивать (ru) impf (sméšivatʹ), смеша́ть (ru) pf (smešátʹ)

to have sex with

• Maori: pororua
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

to have sex — see have sex

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• (deprecated template usage) Mandarin: 干涉 (gan she)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}

Anagrams

• melded