Lexic.us

Definition of Riddle

1. Noun. A difficult problem.

2. Verb. Pierce with many holes. "The bullets riddled his body"

3. Noun. A coarse sieve (as for gravel).

4. Verb. Set a difficult problem or riddle. "Riddle me a riddle"

5. Verb. Separate with a riddle, as grain from chaff.

6. Verb. Spread or diffuse through. "His campaign was riddled with accusations and personal attacks"

7. Verb. Speak in riddles.

8. Verb. Explain a riddle.

Definition of Riddle

1. n. 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. v. t. To separate, as grain from the chaff, with a riddle; to pass through a riddle; as, riddle wheat; to riddle coal or gravel.

3. n. Something proposed to be solved by guessing or conjecture; a puzzling question; an ambiguous proposition; an enigma; hence, anything ambiguous or puzzling.

4. v. t. To explain; to solve; to unriddle.

5. v. i. To speak ambiguously or enigmatically.

Definition of Riddle

1. Noun. A verbal puzzle, mystery, or other problem of an intellectual nature, such as "It's black, and white, and red all over. What is it?" ¹

2. Verb. To speak ambiguously or enigmatically. ¹

3. Verb. (transitive) To solve, answer, or explicate a riddle or question ¹

4. Noun. A sieve. ¹

5. Verb. To fill with holes. ¹

6. Verb. To fill or spread throughout; to pervade. ¹

7. Verb. To put something through a sieve ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Riddle

1. to pierce with many holes [v -DLED, -DLING, -DLES]

Lexicographical Neighbors of Riddle

rid rid of rid out rid up ridable riddance riddances ridded ridden ridden hard and put away wet

ridder ridders riddim riddims ridding riddle (current term) riddle canon riddle me this riddle stick riddle sticks

riddled riddlelike riddler riddlers riddles riddling riddlings ride a horse foaled by an acorn ride along

Literary usage of Riddle

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. United States Supreme Court Reports by United States Supreme Court, Walter Malins Rose, Lawyers Co-operative Publishing Company, LEXIS Law Publishing (1901)
"The second plea, after protesting as in the first plea, avers, that riddle came to the defendant and asked him whether Welsh had not applied to him, Moss, ..."

2. The Quarterly Review by John Gibson Lockhart, George Walter Prothero, William Gifford, Sir John Taylor Coleridge, Whitwell Elwin, William Macpherson, Baron Rowland Edmund Prothero Ernle, Sir William Smith (1906)
"Who knows but that such methods, employed by one so specially gifted, might not have solved the riddle of music, and thereby explained the how and why of ..."

3. A History of Nursery Rhymes by Percy B. Green (1899)
"CHAPTER Vlll. riddle-MAKING. riddle-MAKING is not left alone by the purveyors of nursery yarns, though belonging .to the mythologic state of thought The ..."

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