In the 16th century, Turkish women could divorce their husbands if the man failed to keep his family’s pot filled with coffee.
riddling
present participle of riddle
riddling (plural riddlings)
Material removed by riddling, or sieving.
The posing or solving of a riddle.
Source: Wiktionary
Rid"dling, a.
Definition: Speaking in a riddle or riddles; containing a riddle. "Riddling triplets." Tennyson.
– Rid"dling, adv.
Rid"dle, n. Etym: [OE. ridil, AS. hridder; akin to G. reiter, L. cribrum, and to Gr. rein clean. See Crisis, Certain.]
1. A sieve with coarse meshes, usually of wire, for separating coarser materials from finer, as chaff from grain, cinders from ashes, or gravel from sand.
2. A board having a row of pins, set zigzag, between which wire is drawn to straighten it.
Rid"dle, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Riddled; p. pr. & vb. n. Riddling.]
1. To separate, as grain from the chaff, with a riddle; to pass through a riddle; as, riddle wheat; to riddle coal or gravel.
2. To perforate so as to make like a riddle; to make many holes in; as, a house riddled with shot.
Rid"dle, n. Etym: [For riddels, s being misunderstood as the plural ending; OE. ridels, redels. AS. rraadsel, G. räthsel; fr. AS. r to counsel or advise, also, to guess. sq. root116. Cf. Read.]
Definition: Something proposed to be solved by guessing or conjecture; a puzzling question; an ambiguous proposition; an enigma; hence, anything ambiguous or puzzling. To wring from me, and tell to them, my secret, That solved the riddle which I had proposed. Milton. 'T was a strange riddle of a lady. Hudibras.
Rid"dle, v. t.
Definition: To explain; to solve; to unriddle. Riddle me this, and guess him if you can. Dryden.
Rid"dle, v. i.
Definition: To speak ambiguously or enigmatically. "Lysander riddels very prettily." Shak.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition
10 June 2025
(noun) the discipline that studies the principles of transmiting information and the methods by which it is delivered (as print or radio or television etc.); “communications is his major field of study”
In the 16th century, Turkish women could divorce their husbands if the man failed to keep his family’s pot filled with coffee.