▪ I. addle, n. and a.
(ˈæd(ə)l)
Forms: 1 adela, 2 adele, 3 adel, ? 5–8 adle, 6– addle. North. adle (ˈeɪd(ə)l).
[OE. adela is cogn. w. MLG. adele, mod.G. adel, mire, puddle; O.Swed. adel in ko-adel cow-urine. (Not connected with OE. ádl disease.) After the OE. period found only in northern literature, except in addle-egg (where it is now treated as an adj.); but still widely diffused in the dialects.]
A. n.
1. Stinking urine, or other liquid filth; mire.
| a 1000 Enigma in Cod. Exon. 110, 1 Ðæt hér yfle adelan stinceþ. c 1000 ælfric Homil. ii. 380 For ðære f{uacu}lnysse fenlices adelan. 1513 Douglas Virgil, Aeneis iv. viii. 98 Scho gan behald In blak adill the hallowit watter cald Changit in the altare. 1710 Ruddiman Gloss. to Douglas, Adill, addle, rotten, stinking water. 1789 Burns (Chambers ed.) 75 Then lug out your ladle, Deal brimstone like adle. 1847 Halliwell Addle-pool, A pool or puddle, near a dunghill for receiving the fluid from it. South. 1864 E. Capern Devon Provinc., Addle-pool, stagnant water. |
2. ‘The dry lees of wine.’ In Bailey, vol. II, 1731; whence also in Ash 1775.
B. attrib. and adj.
1. a. In addle egg [addle orig. the n. used attrib. (= med.L. ovum ūrīnæ egg of urine or putrid liquid, a perversion of cl. L. ovum ūrinum, repr. Gr. οὔριον ὠόν, wind-egg), at length, c 1600, treated as adj.] A rotten or putrid egg; one that produces no chicken. Applied usually to a fecundated egg in which through exposure to cold the chick dies during hatching; but also to an egg having no germ, which soon begins to decompose; and apparently sometimes to an egg no longer fit for food because partly hatched. (The idea of abortiveness led to many word-plays on addle and idle.)
| a 1250 Owl & Nightingale 133 Ever he cuth that he com thonne, That he com of than adel-eye, Theȝ he a fro neste leie. 1563 Nowell in Strype Ann. Ref. xxxvi. (1709) 377 Hatched us out such a sort of goodly decrees, worse than addle eggs. 1589 Pappe with an Hatchet (1844) 11 These Martins were hatcht of addle egges, els could they not haue such idle heads. 1606 Shakes. Tr. & Cr. i. ii. 145 Pan. He esteemes her no more then I esteeme an addle egge. Cre. If you loue an addle egge as well as you loue an idle head, you would eate chickens i'th'shell. 1611 Cotgr., Oeuf abortif, an addle egge, or an egge whose shell is not yet hard. 1617 Minsheu Ductor, An A'dle Egge q. idle egge, because it is good for nothing, oeuf qui n'a point de germe..[Du.] windeye q. ovum subuentaneum, a windie egge. L. Ovum urinum, because it hath water in it like urine. 1623 ― Span. Dict., Huevo guero, an addle egge, or rotten egge. 1632 Sherwood, Adle or Addle; as an Adle Egg, Oeuf pourci, corrumpu, ou, sans germe; oeuf abortif. 1667 Denham Direct. to Painter ii. ii. 10 in T.C.P. (1689) 12/2 Alas, even they, though shell'd in treble Oak, Will prove an Addle Egge, with double Yolk. 1739 Gray Lett. (1775) 43 We dined at Montreuil, much to our hearts' content, on stinking mutton cutlets, addle eggs, and ditch water. 1768 Willoughby in Pennant Brit. Zool. I. 125 Upon which lay a young one and an addle egg. 1840 Gen. Thompson Exerc. (1842) V. 191 Why must the 130 millions which are involved in railways be an addle egg? 1863 Kingsley Wat. Bab. (1878) 193 The distilled liquor of addle eggs. |
b. as simple adj.
| 1592 Shakes. Rom. & Jul. iii. i. 25 Thy head hath bin beaten as addle as an egge for quarreling. 1643 Horn & Robotham Gate of Lang. Unlocked xiv. §147 Poultry shut up in a hen⁓house lay eggs..and sitting on them (unlesse they be addle) they hatch young chicks. 1655 Moffet & Bennet Health's Improv. (1746) 225 New Eggs are ever full, but old Eggs lose every Day somewhat of their Substance, and in the end waxing addle, stink like Urine, whereupon they were called of the Latins Ova Urinæ. 1781 Pennant in Phil. Trans. LXXI. 70 They [Turkeys] sit on their eggs with such perseverance, that if they are not taken away when addle, the hens will almost perish with hunger before they will quit the nest. |
2. a. fig. Empty, idle, vain; also (with reference to the decomposed or disorganized condition of an addle egg), muddled, confused, unsound.
| [1706 Phillips, Addle, Empty or rotten; properly spoken of an Egg, and figuratively apply'd to a Hair-brain'd, Empty scull'd Fellow.] |
| a 1593 H. Smith Works (1867) II. 480 Sudden qualm, or sullen care, Or addle-fit of idle fear. 1594 Hooker Eccl. Politie iii. (1617) 101 Concerning his preaching, their very by-word was λόγος ἐξουθενηµένος, Addle speech, emptie talke. 1591 Lyly Endymion iv. iii. 58 Till sleepe has rock'd his addle head. 1616 R. C. Times' Whistle v. 1835 Thus they drink round, Vntill their adle heads doe make the ground Seeme blew vnto them. 1622 M. Fotherby Atheomastix i. xi. §2, 113 The corrupt fancies of their owne addle heads. 1674 Fairfax Bulk. & Selv. World 59 Somewhat that is the fondling of our addle brains. 1693 W. Robertson Phraseol. Gener. 1333, I wish him an ounce more wit in his addle head. c 1800 R. Fellowes Milton's 2nd Def. (1847) 924/2 That tiresome and addle epistle which follows. Ibid. 923/1 The shell was no sooner broken than they loathed the addle and putrid contents. |
b. as simple adj.
| 1602 T. Fitzherbert Apology 15 Your owne imagination, which was no lesse Idle, then your head was addle all that day. 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. iii. iv. i. ii. (1651) 657 Their brains were addle, and their bellies as empty of meat as their heads of wit. 1690 Dryden Don Sebastian Prol. 24 Thus far the poet; but his brains grow addle, And all the rest is purely from his noddle. 1795 Burke Scarcity, Wks. VII. 419 The brains of the people growing more and more addle with every sort of visionary speculation. |
3. dialectally. Unsound, crazy.
| 1847 Halliwell, Adle, Unsound, unwell, East. 1876 Surrey Prov. (Eng. Dial. Soc.), Adle [ē{supi}·d'l] weak, shaky; said of a fence the posts of which have become loose. |
C. Comb.
1. addle-brain, addle-head, addle-pate; one whose head is addled, a stupid bungler.
| 1601 Death of Huntington i. i. in Hazl. Dodsl. VIII. 219, I and my mates Like addle-pates. 1641 ‘Smectymnuus’ Vindic. Answ. Humb. Remonstr. §16.205 Call them if you will, Popish fooles, and addleheads. 1849 Miss Muloch Ogilvies xviii. (1875) 141 It is quite too overpowering for such addle-pates as this gentleman and myself. 1880 Disraeli Endym. I. viii. 71 ‘Never mind Lord Waverly and such addle⁓brains,’ said Zenobia. |
2. addle-brained, addle-headed, addle-pated, a.; applied contemptuously to one whose intellect seems muddled.
| 1630 J. Taylor (Water Poet) Wks. ii. 252/2 Let euery idle addle-pated gull With stinking sweet Tobacco stuffe his skull. a 1670 Hacket Life of Williams ii. 166 Unstable people flock after these coachmen-preachers, watchmaking-preachers, barber-preachers and such addle-headed companions. 1848 Dickens Lett. (1880) I. 202, I was quite addle-headed for the time being. 1864 Mattie, A Stray III. 212 Two weak addle-pated mortals, only fitted for each other. 1866 Motley Dutch Rep. iv. v. 633 The addle-brained Oberstein had confessed..the enormous blunder which he had committed. |
3. addle-headedness, fatuity.
| 1835 Gen. P. Thompson Exerc. (1842) III. 435 Calculate the addle-headedness of such inveterate old women, as should go about recommending to try Juno for dry nurse. |
▪ II. addle, v.1
(ˈæd(ə)l)
[f. addle a.; cf. to sour, to wet, to cool, etc.]
1. trans. To make addle; to muddle; to confuse (the brain); to spoil, make abortive.
| c 1712 Otway C. Marius ii. ii. One bottle to his Lady's health quite addles him. 1841 Dickens Lett. (ed. 2) I. 43, I have addled my head with writing all day. 1849 ― Barn. Rudge (1866) I. x. 50 He addled..his brain by shaking his head. 1878 Simpson Sch. Shaks. I. 97 His cold procrastination addled the victory of Lepanto, as it had formerly addled that of St. Quentin. |
2. intr. To grow addle (as an egg); also fig.
| 1812–21 Combe Dr. Syntax xi. (Chandos) 42 Though his courage 'gan to addle, He still stuck close upon his saddle. 1829 Southey Pilgr. Compost. iv. Wks. VII. 266 Not one of these eggs ever addled. 1857 H. Miller Test Rocks viii. 337 For in still water, however pure, the eggs in a few weeks addle and die. |
▪ III. † addle, v.2 Obs. or dial.
(æd(ə)l)
[a. ON. öðla, refl. öðla-sk to acquire (for oneself) property, f. óðal property. Found only in northern writers, and now exclusively dialectal, but used everywhere from Leicestershire to Northumberland; not in Scotland. (Spelt by some compilers of local glossaries eddle, after a false etymology in OE. ed-léan a reward.)]
1. trans. To acquire or gain as one's own; to earn.
| c 1200 Ormulum 16102 Hemm addlenn swa þe maste wa Þatt aniȝ mann maȝȝ addlenn. Ibid. 6235 & heore leȝhe birrþ hemm beon Rædiȝ, þann itt iss addledd. c 1460 Towneley Myst., Crucif. 218 If thou be kyng we shalle thank adylle, For we shalle sett the in thy sadylle. 1483 Cathol. Anglic. To Adylle: commereri, promereri, mereri, adipisci, adquirere. 1570 Levins Manip. To addil, demerere: to addle, lucrari, mereri. 1674 Ray N. Countrey Wds. 2 To Adle or Addle; to Earn. 1680 Trial [at York] in Howell State Trials (1816) VII. 1169 He would give me more than I could addle (that is, earn) in seven years. 1825 Brockett Gloss. N. Country Wds., Addle, Eddle, v. To earn by labour. Addlings, labourer's wages. 1862 in Chamber's Jrnl. 30 Apr. 216 [West Riding of York] A good man 'll addle aboot four shillings or four and sixpence a day. 1865 Harland Lanc. Lyrics 76 He says he's addled fifty pund, An bowt a kist an' clock. |
2. absol. Of crops: To produce, yield, ripen fruit.
| 1580 Tusser Husb. li. 6 Where Iuie imbraceth the tree verie sore, Kill Iuie, or else tree will addle no more. 1865 Cornh. Mag. July 31 Crops..in Westmoreland, when they ripen well, are said to ‘addle well,’ as if a notion of working and earning were implied. |