In the 16th century, Turkish women could divorce their husbands if the man failed to keep his family’s pot filled with coffee.
ADDLED
addled, befuddled, muddled, muzzy, woolly, wooly, woolly-headed, wooly-minded
(adjective) confused and vague; used especially of thinking; “muddleheaded ideas”; “your addled little brain”; “woolly thinking”; “woolly-headed ideas”
addled
(adjective) (of eggs) no longer edible; “an addled egg”
Source: WordNet® 3.1
Etymology
Verb
addled
simple past tense and past participle of addle
Adjective
addled (comparative more addled, superlative most addled)
(of eggs) Bad, rotten; inviable, containing a dead embryo.
Confused; mixed up.
(obsolete) Morbid, corrupt, putrid, or barren.
Anagrams
• daddle
Source: Wiktionary
ADDLE
Ad"dle, n. Etym: [OE. adel, AS. adela, mud.]
1. Liquid filth; mire. [Obs.]
2. Lees; dregs. [Prov. Eng.] Wright.
Ad"dle, a.
Definition: Having lost the power of development, and become rotten, as eggs; putrid. Hence: Unfruitful or confused, as brains; muddled. Dryden.
Ad"dle, v. t. & i. [imp. & p. p. Addled; p. pr. & vb. n. Addling.]
Definition: To make addle; to grow addle; to muddle; as, he addled his brain. "Their eggs were addled." Cowper.
Ad"dle, v. t. & i. Etym: [OE. adlen, adilen, to gain, acquire; prob. fr. Icel. ö\'eblask to acquire property, akin to othal property. Cf. Allodial.]
1. To earn by labor. [Prov. Eng.] Forby.
2. To thrive or grow; to ripen. [Prov. Eng.] Kill ivy, else tree will addle no more. Tusser.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
Recent Word Finds
Word of the Day
23 January 2025
LEFT
(adjective) being or located on or directed toward the side of the body to the west when facing north; “my left hand”; “left center field”; “the left bank of a river is bank on your left side when you are facing downstream”
Coffee Trivia
