addle Hear it!

addle Definition

ad·dle (ad′'l)

adjective

  1. rotten: said of an egg
  2. muddled; confused: now usually in compounds addlebrained

Etymology: ME adel in adel-eye, addle-egg, transl. of L ovum urinae, egg of urine, confused form of ovum urinum (a rendering of Gr ourion ōon, wind-egg) < OE adela; akin to MLowG adele, mud

intransitive verb, transitive verb -·dled, -·dling

  1. to make or become rotten
  2. to make or become muddled or confused

addle Usage Examples

Object

  • brain: All the horrors of the deep now rushed into my frantic, addled brain.
  • mind: A contemporary Aladdin's cave, filled with all the treasures that any hip hop, design addled mind can imagine and then some.
  • egg: Blood, feathers, foot washes, addled eggs, pellets, carcasses, and scavenged prey will be used in these analyzes.
  • memory: Having subjected his mind to all manner of chemical battering, Manning can't quite distinguish addled memories from hideous hallucinations.
  • head: It was the only way that al l that was said wouldn't wash straight out of my addled head.
  • drug: Inexplicably more unfocused and drug addled than the car crash of distortion previously displayed.

Modifies a noun

  • egg: If you love an addle egg as well as you love an idle head, you would eat chickens i ' th ' shell.

Modifying Another Word

  • so: I should have known better, but by this time hunger and weariness had so addled my brain that I took his advice.
  • too: Her mind was, in any case, too addled to play Bridge with them any more.