rid|dle

rid|dle¹ «RIHD uhl», noun, verb, -dled, -dling.

–n.

1. a puzzling question, statement, or problem, usually presented as a game or pastime. Example: When is a door not a door? Answer: When it is ajar. SYNONYM(S): enigma, puzzle, conundrum.

2. a person or thing that is hard to understand, explain, or predict: »

All that Silver said was a riddle to him (Robert Louis Stevenson). Russia…is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma (Sir Winston Churchill).

–v.i.

1. to speak in riddles.

2. to ask riddles.

–v.t.

to solve (a riddle or question): »

Riddle me this, and guess him if you can, who bears a nation in a single man? (John Dryden).

╂[Middle English redel < earlier redels, taken as plural, Old English r < r to guess, explain]

–rid´dler, noun.

rid|dle² «RIHD uhl», verb, -dled, -dling, noun.

–v.t.

1. to make many holes in: »

The door of the fort was riddled with bullets.

SYNONYM(S): perforate.

2. to sift: »

to riddle gravel.

3. Figurative. to impair or weaken as if by making many holes in: »

The witness's testimony was riddled with lies.

╂[< noun]

–n.

a coarse sieve.

╂[Old English hriddel sieve]