noun a puzzling question to which you have to find the answer ○ Here’s a riddle for you: what’s black and white and red all over? (NOTE: The answer is ‘a book’ if you say ‘read’ instead of ‘red’.) ■ verb to make a lot of holes in something ○ They riddled the car with bullets.
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rid´dle
n. [OE. ridil, AS. hridder; akin to G. reiter, L. cribrum, and to Gr. to distinguish, separate, and G. 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.
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rid´dle
v. t. [imp. & p. p.Riddledp. 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.
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rid´dle
n. [For riddels, s being misunderstood as the plural ending; OE. ridels, redels. AS. rdels; akin to D. raadsel, G. räthsel; fr. AS. rdan to counsel or advise, also to guess. rad.116. Cf. Read.] 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.
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rid´dle
v. t. To explain; to solve; to unriddle. “Riddle me this, and guess him if you can.” Dryden.
Meaning of “riddle” in English language – noun a puzzling question to which you ha...
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