▪ I. puddle, n.
(ˈpʌd(ə)l)
Forms: 4–5 podel, (4 -elle, 5–6 -ell), 5 poþel, pothel, 5–7 puddel, (6 -elle, -il, 6–7 -ell), 6 poddell, podle, 6 Sc. pwdyll, 6–7 pudle; 6– puddle.
[ME. podel, puddel, app. dim. from OE. pudd ditch, furrow (puddas ‘sulcos’ in Prudentius Gloss; cf. dial. pudge, pudgell), = G. dial. pudel, pfudel a puddle. W. pwdel is from Eng. Cf. next, also plud.]
1. a. A small body of standing water, foul with mud, etc. or with a muddy bottom, now always shallow, as those left in depressions of the ground in a road or footpath after rain; a small dirty pool. † Formerly in wider sense, including larger collections of water, as a pond, or a pit full or water, or even an extensive slough or swamp (quot. 1596).
| c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 54 He did Harald body do drawe vp also tite, & þorgh þe podels it drouh, þat foule were & deppest. a 1400 Cath. Epist. (MS. Douce 250) 2 Pet. ii. 22 (Paues 220) Þe sowe þat wascheþ hyre in þe podel wiþ mukke al fyled. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 411/2 Poþel, slothe, or podel (H. pothel), lacuna. 1491 Caxton Vitas Patr. (W. de W. 1495) i. clxiv. 173/1 A sowe dooth laye herself in a fowle puddel. c 1534 Nisbet N. Test. in Scots, Prol. Rom. (S.T.S.) III. 347 That thou sulde returnne (as anne swynne) vnto thinne auld pwdyll agaynne. a 1548 Hall Chron., Rich. III 40 His younger sonne in a smal puddel was strangled & drouned. 1555 Eden Decades 122 The vyllage it selfe, is in a maryshe, and in maner a standynge puddle. 1572 Huloet, Podle, or slowe. 1593 Shakes. Lucr. 657 Thy sea within a puddels wombe is hersed, And not the puddle in thy sea dispersed. 1596 E. Barton in Purchas Pilgrims (1625) II. viii. x. 1359 They being intrenched..neere to a long puddle or moorish ground, of some foure miles long, in breadth some seuen or eight Rods. a 1632 G. Herbert Jacula Prudentum Wks. (Rtldg.) 308 Every path hath a puddle. a 1660 Contemp. Hist. Irel. (Ir. Archæol. Soc.) II. 128 Preferringe the pudle before the pearle. 1742 H. Baker Microsc. ii. v. 90 Every Puddle can..present us with living Wonders. 1878 Huxley Physiogr. 136 A way-side puddle which receives the muddy drainage of the road. |
b. transf. A small pool of any liquid (see also
quot. 1726). Also (
colloq.), a pool of evacuated urine;
usu. in
phr. to make a puddle, with reference to a young child or pet animal (
cf. accident n. 1 d).
| 1726 Leoni Alberti's Archit. I. 5/1 The Air for want of Motion will grow thick and muddy; such a Valley may..be call'd a Puddle, or Bog of Air. 1883 W. M. Williams in Knowledge 20 July 35/2 Pale slices of meat spread out in a little puddle of pale, watery liquid. 1968 J. Lloyd Death at Roman Farm i. 10 Are you sure she hasn't made a puddle? 1972 J. Wilson Hide & Seek vi. 107 Can I have a mop to wipe up Mary's puddle? 1977 M. Underwood Murder with Malice iii. 37 Why are you looking at me as if I'd just made a puddle on the floor? |
c. Applied
fig. and humorously to the sea,
esp. the Atlantic Ocean;
usu. in
phr. this (etc.) side of the puddle.
Cf. pond n. 2.
| 1889 Ally Sloper's Half Holiday 6 July 214/2 There seems to be no end to the chaff which the downy dandies across the puddle have to bear. 1902 Farmer & Henley Slang V. 312 The Puddle,..the Atlantic Ocean... In Cornwall, the English Channel. 1978 SLR Camera Aug. 21/1 For many years the American company..have made fine enlarging frames (masking frames this side of the puddle) both for retail distribution and for exclusive use by Simmon-Emega. |
d. Rowing. The circular, rippled, disturbance left in the water after the blade of an oar has been lifted from it at the end of a stroke.
| 1934 Times 17 Mar. 14/1 Holdsworth is rowing better than he has ever done before at No. 2. His puddle is worthy of a man a stone heavier. 1955 R. Bannister First Four Minutes iii. 39, I could see my oars were making some splendid ‘puddles’. |
e. A small pool of molten metal,
esp. that formed during welding; a piece of metal solidified from a pool.
| 1935 C. G. Bainbridge in Symp. Welding Iron & Steel (Iron & Steel Inst.) II. 14 A large rod melts slowly and cools the molten puddle, causing rapid solidification. 1942 J. A. Moyer Welding v. 43 As the torch flame moves away, the molten metal in the puddle solidifies and joins the two plates into one solid piece. 1958 Man LVIII. 64/1 The first flat celts were hammered out of natural copper, and then out of rough casts or puddles of it or of poor bronze, smooth on the lower side, rough and scabbed on the open side. 1975 Bram & Downs Manuf. Technol. ii. 47 While one hand manipulates the torch to carry a puddle across the plate, the other adds the correct amount of filler rod. |
2. a. fig. or in figurative allusion,
esp. with reference to moral defilement, or to false doctrine, etc. regarded as polluting:
cf. sink.
| 1533 More Apol. v. Wks. 854/2 The preacher stumbleth at the same stocke, and falleth into the same puddell that Tyndall didde. 1548 Udall, etc. Erasm. Par. Matt. iii. 30 The puddle and synke of al myschiefe. 1695 Ld. Preston Boeth. iv. 170 Dost thou see then in what a Puddle of Filth Impiety doth wallow. 1787 J. Howie Plain Reasons for Dissent. 179 Swimming down the impure puddle of Erastianism. 1865 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. xx. vi. (1872) IX. 119 He stalks loftily through this puddle of a world, on terms of his own. |
b. fig. A confused collection or heap; a state of confusion or embarrassment; a muddle, mess. Now only
colloq. or
dial.| 1587 Golding De Mornay ix. (1592) 135 Seeing that in the middes of that Puddle of humors ech liuing wight hath a Soule dwelling. 1608 Dekker 2nd Pt. Honest Wh. Wks. 1873 II. 136, I am neuer out of one puddle or another. 1805 W. Taylor in Monthly Mag. XX. 123 This thoughtless jumble of terms, this confused puddle of phrases. 1871 Carlyle in Mrs. Carlyle's Lett. (1883) II. 157 This drawing-room..without her would have been a puddle of wasteful failure. |
3. Foul or muddy water such as is found in puddles (
= puddle water in 6 a). Chiefly
fig. or in figurative allusion:
cf. 2. Now only
dial.| 1555 W. Watreman Fardle Facions ii. iv. 137, I rather fansie..to folowe the founteines of the first Authours, then the brokes of abredgers, which often bring with them much puddle. 1597 A. M. tr. Guillemeau's Fr. Chirurg. 53 b/1 His drinck, foule and impure puddle, yea, & stinckinge water. 1681 Crowne Hen. VI, iv. 64 Hard roots my only food, Foul puddle all my drink. 1791 Burke App. Whigs Wks. VI. 96 When that monster was obliged to fly with his wife Sporus, and to drink puddle. 1835 Lytton Rienzi vii. ii, One..of a great house; the least drop of whose blood was worth an ocean of plebeian puddle. |
4. A preparation of clay, or of clay and sand, mixed with water and tempered, used as a water-tight covering for embankments, lining for canals, etc. Also called
puddling.
| 1795 J. Phillips Hist. Inland Navig. 365 Puddle, an article of great use in completing canals where the soil is leaky, or unfavourable for holding the water. 1838 Simms Public Wks. Gt. Brit. 29 Water..must be excluded..by a lining of puddle. 1861 Smiles Engineers I. 353 note, Puddle is formed by a mixture of well-tempered clay and sand reduced to a semi-fluid state, and rendered impervious to water by manual labour, as by working and chopping it about with spades. |
| attrib. 1839 Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl. II. 21/2 They are formed..with an upright ‘puddle wall’ in the centre. Ibid. 109/2 The want of a puddle lining. 1872 Daily News 13 July, The offices of the contractors..as well as the puddle waggons and working plant, were washed away. |
5. dial. A muddler: a bungler.
[
Eng. Dial. Dict. has ‘One who is slow, dirty, inefficient, or unmethodical at work, a bungler, a muddler’.]
| 1782 F. Burney Cecilia vii. v, I remember when I was quite a boy hearing her called a limping old puddle. 1835 Carlyle Jrnl. 1 Jan. in Froude C.'s Life in London I. 18 A foot which a puddle of a maid scalded three weeks ago. |
6. attrib. and
Comb. (See also sense 4 and
puddle v. 7)
a. attrib. or as adj. (in sense 1 or 3): Such as is found in puddles; dirty, muddy, thick, polluted: said
esp. of water.
| c 1380 Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. II. 335 Þei grutchiden aȝens þis water, and drunken podel water of þe canel. 1579–80 North Plutarch (1676) 760 To see Antonius..so easily to drinke puddle water, and to eat wild Fruits and Roots. 1619 R. Harris Drunkard's Cup 12 Hee knowes how of puddle ale, to make a cup of English wine. 1642 J. Eaton Honey-c. Free Justif. 374 As if one, to put away one spot in his face, should wash himself in puddle mire. 1835 Lytton Rienzi i. iii, I would fain let their puddle-blood flow an hour or two longer. 1851 Borrow Lavengro xciv, I would consent to drink puddle-water. |
b. Comb. as
puddle-hole;
puddle-deep,
puddle-like adjs.;
† Puddle dock,
† Puddle wharf, names of a place on the Thames at Blackfriars (see
quots. 1598, 1720);
puddle-duck, the domestic duck;
puddle-jumper U.S. slang, a fast, highly-manœuvrable, means of transport (see
quots.),
esp. a small light aeroplane; hence
puddle-jumping ppl. a.;
puddle-poet, a contemptuous designation.
| a 1637 B. Jonson Discov., Ingeniorum discrimina 5 They write a verse as smooth, as soft as cream... They are cream⁓bowl, or but *puddle-deep. |
| 1633 Rowley Match at Midn. iv, To surprize her,..pop her in at *Puddle-dock, and carry her to Gravesend in a paire of oares. 1648 W. Jenkyn Blind Guide i. 8 He seems to dip his pen, or rather his pia mater, in puddle-dock. 1681 T. Flatman Heraclitus Ridens No. 4 (1713) I. 25 To Libel, Calumniate, and throw Puddle-dock Wit in the Face of Superiors. 1720 Strype Stow's Surv. I. iii. 229 On the Banks of the River Thames, are the Wharfs of Puddle Dock, used for a Laystall for the Soil of the Streets; and much frequented by Barges and Lighters, for taking the same away. |
| 1877 Scribner's Monthly Nov. 6/1 Presently we heard a shrilly feeble whistle, precisely such as the young *puddle⁓duck of the barn-yard makes in his earliest vocal efforts. 1908 B. Potter Tale of Jemima Puddle-duck 9 Listen to the story of Jemima Puddle-duck, who was annoyed because the farmer's wife would not let her hatch her own eggs. 1975 J. Gores Hammett (1976) xix. 132 Puddle ducks..and mud hens..skittered away. |
| 1610 Manchester Court Leet Rec. (1885) II. 252 A *puddle hoale which he or his familie doth vse [as] a privye. 1833 Boston, Lincoln, etc. Herald 16 Apr. 4/2 Jane Hays..found drowned in a puddle-hole used for washing potatoes. |
| 1932 Daily Progress (Charlottesville, Va.) 10 Oct. 9 (caption) Even the bicycles that these sisters use..seem to be related as they resemble each other almost as much as the owners. They are twins... They were on the way to classes on their ‘*puddle jumpers’ when they halted for this picture. 1941 Sun (Baltimore) 23 Aug. 8/8 Only two power-boat tests are slated on today's program..but the ‘puddle-jumpers’ will take over complete control tomorrow. 1944 Newsweek 2 Oct. 31/2 A ‘puddle jumper’ observation plane with bazookas fixed on the wings dove down and knocked out two of the tanks. 1944 A. M. Taylor Lang. of World War II 161 Puddle jumper,..a nickname for Jeep. 1961 ‘A. A. Fair’ Stop at Red Light (1962) viii. 127, I had to take a puddle-jumper with stops in Chicago, Denver and Salt Lake City. 1971 M. Tak Truck Talk 123 Puddle jumper, a lightweight truck. 1978 Detroit Free Press 16 Apr. (Parade Suppl.) 3/3 Any one..can call his plane an air ambulance even if it's just a ‘puddle-jumper’ without medical equipment. |
| 1941 Sun (Baltimore) 2 Aug. 7/1 They are hoping to receive soon a long-promised consignment of three ‘*puddle-jumping’ Vultee 049 planes in which they will be able to hop up and down from even the smallest corn field. |
| 1655 Fuller Ch. Hist. i. iii. §1 It seems the *puddle-poet did hope that the jingling of his rhymes would drown the sound of his false quantity. |
| 1598 Stow Surv. 297 Then is there..*Puddle Wharfe, a water gate into the Thames, where horses vse to be watered, and therfore being filed with their trampeling, and made puddle like,..it is (as I suppose) called Puddle Wharf. |
▪ II. puddle, v. (
ˈpʌd(ə)l)
Forms: see
prec.; also 7
poodle.
[f. puddle n.; cf. Du. poedelen, LG., G. pud(d)eln to dabble or splash in water, also G. butteln, buddeln to dabble or paddle in mud, etc. F. puddler, G. puddeln, etc. to puddle (iron) are from Eng.] 1. a. intr. To dabble or poke about,
esp. in mud or shallow water; to wallow in mire; to wade through puddles;
fig. to busy oneself in an untidy or disorderly way; to ‘muddle’ or ‘mess’ about.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 411/2 Poþelon, or pothelyn, or grubbyn yn the erthe. 1616 Surfl. & Markh. Country Farme 78 The drosse of the Riddle or Searce must be cast about the edges of the Pond: and also within the same, to cause them to be pudling in the myre. 1846 Thackeray Cornhill to Cairo v, Children..are playing and puddling about in the dirt everywhere. 1866 Routledge's Ev. Boy's Ann. 421 The little creatures pass half their day puddling about in the water in all the beauty of nakedness. |
| fig. 1591 Bruce Serm. vi. M viij, Tha multitude..haue..gone to mumchances, mumries, & vnknawin language, wherein they pudled of befoir. 1633 Fife Witch Trial in Statist. Acc. Scotl. (1796) XVIII. App. 654 Let honest men puddle and work as they like. 1639 R. Junius Sin Stigmat. Pref. (T.), I were very simple, if..I should poodle in a wasp's nest, and think to purchase ease by it! 1680 Bunyan Mr. Badman To Rdr. (1905) 7, I know 'tis ill pudling in the Cockatrices den. 1768–74 Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) I. 115 We may puddle about for ever without getting up a drop of ink to write with. 1858 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. ii. viii. (1872) I. 100 Then they puddled considerably..in the general broils of the Reich. 1864 Ibid. xvi. v. VI. 171 He puddles about, at a great rate. |
b. trans. To bring or get into some specified state by ‘puddling’; in
quots. refl.| 1759 Compl. Lett.-writer (ed. 6) 224 Mrs. Langford..puddled herself into a minuet. 1862 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. xiv. viii. (1872) V. 255 Men enough did puddle themselves to death on the clay roads. |
2. trans. To bemire; to wet with mud or dirty water.
| 1535 Lyndesay Satyre 4296 I fell into ane midding..As I was pudlit thair, God wait Bot with my club I maid debait. 1855 Thackeray Newcomes viii, Tablecloths puddled with melted ice. |
3. a. To make (water) muddy or dirty. Also
fig.| 1593 G. Harvey Pierce's Super. **ij b, The other..shall neuer puddle or annoy the course of the cleere running water. 1698 Fryer Acc. E. India & P. 273 It was immediately puddled with the Mud of Heresy. 1870 Rossetti Jenny xxi, So the life-blood of this rose, Puddled with shameful knowledge, flows. |
b. To muddle, confuse; to sully the purity or clearness of.
| 1604 Shakes. Oth. iii. iv. 143 Something sure of State,..Hath pudled his cleare Spirit. 1650 H. More Observ. in Enthus. Tri., etc. (1656) 81 His phansie is pudled so and jumbled in the Limbus or Huddle of the Matter. 1847 Tennyson Princ. iii. 130 Such extremes, I told her, well might harm The woman's cause. ‘Not more than now’, she said, ‘So puddled as it is with favouritism’. |
4. a. To reduce the surface of the ground, earth, clay, etc., into mud or puddle, by trampling and ‘poaching’ it when wet; hence,
spec. to knead and temper a mixture of wet clay and sand so as to form a plastic mass impervious to water, used for various purposes. See
puddle n. 4.
| 1762 [see puddling vbl. n. 2]. 1796 Trans. Soc. Arts XIV. 239 The soil dug over and puddled as a base. 1805 R. W. Dickson Pract. Agric. I. 157 Rendering the surface completely puddled, to use a term employed in ground works, and thereby to retain water equally with any clay. 1837 Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl. I. 1/1 The soil is then puddled round them. 1861 Musgrave By-roads 24 This layer had been levelled to receive a stratum of clay, a yard in thickness, and firmly puddled. 1880 I. L. Bird Japan I. 85 The rice crop.. needs to be ‘puddled’ three times, i.e. for all the people to turn into the slush, and grub out all the weeds and tangled aquatic plants, which weave themselves from tuft to tuft, and puddle up the mud afresh round the roots. |
b. To cover or line with puddle; to render water-tight by the application of puddle.
| 1810 in Southey Comm.-pl. Bk. IV. 391/2 Mr. Tuke..bequeathed..To seven of the oldest navigators, one guinea for puddling him up in his grave. 1844 Stephens Bk. Farm I. 179 It will be necessary to puddle the seams of the rock on that side of the well in which it dips downwards. 1850 Beck's Florist 235 If there is a small bog contrived in a shady corner, by puddling the bottom of a basin of stones with some tenacious clay. 1897 Bailey Princ. Fruit-growing 246 Puddling the roots [of trees]..to be shipped any distance..consists in sousing the roots in a thin mud or paste of clay. |
5. Iron Manuf. To stir about and turn over (molten iron) in a reverberatory furnace, so as to expel the carbon and convert it into malleable
iron.| 1798 [see puddling vbl. n. 3 b]. 1839 Ure Dict. Arts 702 The fine metal obtained by the coke is puddled by a continuous operation, which calls for much care and skill. 1866 Rogers Agric. & Prices I. xv. 253 This iron was..puddled in some rude fashion into blooms or masses weighing about a hundred. |
6. Gold- and
Opal-mining. To work (clayey or sticky wash-dirt) with water in a tub so as to separate the ore.
| 1853 E. Clacy Lady's Visit Gold Diggings Austral. vii. 114 This soil, from being so stiff, would require ‘puddling’, a work of which he did not seem to relish the anticipation. 1859 [see puddling vbl. n. 4]. 1864 Rogers New Rush ii. 26 There, in a row, the tub and cradle stands, The owner puddling with unchartered hands. 1869 Routledge's Ev. Boy's Ann. 597 These buckets were hoisted up..and their contents emptied into a big tub, where they were puddled. 1963 Pix 13 July 21 Machines are used to ‘puddle’ (separate and sieve) opal dirt. 1967 S. Lloyd Lightning Ridge Bk. (1968) i. 1 Opal dirt can be brought to the surface and examined or puddled. |
7. Comb. (from sense 5:
perh. orig. puddled 4,
cf. puddling vbl. n. 3 b):
puddle-ball, a rounded mass of iron formed in puddling;
puddle-bar, a flat bar formed by passing a
puddle-ball between
puddle-rolls;
puddle-steel, steel made by puddling. Also,
puddle-roll: see
quot. 1858;
puddle-train, a train of
puddle-rolls.
| 1840 Civil Eng. & Arch. Jrnl. III. 104/2 Improvements in rolling puddle balls or other masses of iron. 1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, Puddle-rolls, a pair of large heavy rollers with grooved surfaces, between which [puddled] iron is passed, to be flattened into bars. 1861 Fairbairn Iron 108 In this state it is called a puddle-bar. 1863 P. Barry Dockyard Econ. 234 Turning out 600 tons of malleable iron and puddle steel weekly. |