riddle

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A puzzle or question that is hard to answer and often has a clever or tricky answer.

   Here's a riddle: what is black, white, and read all over?

2. 2
   verb

   To make many holes in something, especially with bullets.

   The bullets riddled the side of the car.

3. 3
   verb

   To fill something completely, usually with something bad (used with 'with').

   Your argument is riddled with errors.

Simplified etymology

Riddle is an Old English word from the same Germanic root as read, a root meaning “advise, guess, interpret.”

From Middle English riddil, ridelle (“sieve”), from Old English hriddel (“sieve”), alteration of earlier hridder, hrīder, from Proto-West Germanic *hrīdrā, from Proto-Germanic *hrīdrą, *hrīdrǭ (“sieve”), from Proto-Germanic *hrid- (“to shake”), from Proto-Indo-European *krey-. Akin to German Reiter (“sieve”), Old Norse hreinn (“pure, clean”), Old High German hreini (“pure, clean”), Gothic 𐌷𐍂𐌰𐌹𐌽𐍃 (hrains, “clean, pure”). More at rinse.

Topics

External links

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