riddle

noun

1. 1

   A verbal puzzle, mystery, or other problem of an intellectual nature.

   Here's a riddle: It's black, and white, and red all over. What is it?

   To wring from me and tell to them my ſecret, / That ſolv'd the riddle which I had propos'd.

   Elbows almost touching they leaned at ease, idly reading the almost obliterated lines engraved there. ¶ "I never understood it," she observed, lightly scornful. "What occult meaning has a sun-dial for the spooney? I'm sure I don't want to read riddles in a strange gentleman's optics."

   I'm a riddle so strong, you can't break me

2. 2

   An ancient verbal, poetic, or literary form, in which, rather than a rhyme scheme, there are parallel opposing expressions with a hidden meaning.

verb

1. 1

   To speak ambiguously or enigmatically.

2. 2

   To solve, answer, or explicate a riddle or question.

   Riddle me this.

noun

1. 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. 2

   A board with a row of pins, set zigzag, between which wire is drawn to straighten it.

verb

1. 1

   To put something through a riddle or sieve; to sieve; to sift.

   You have to riddle the gravel before you lay it on the road.

   In its finest form – two years old or more – leaf mould can be riddled (sieved) and used, mixed 50/50 with sand, to make fine potting compost for seeds and cuttings.

2. 2

   To fill with holes like a riddle.

   The shots from his gun began to riddle the targets.

   New Alresford is constantly mispronounced, T-shaped, honeycombed with cellars, packed with antique shops, riddled with woodworm, surrounded by watercress. The name - which means 'ford by the alders' - is pronounced 'Allsford'; and no one ever uses 'New', though they do call the adjoining village Old Alresford.

3. 3

   figurativeTo fill or spread throughout; to pervade (with something destructive or weakening).

   Your argument is riddled with errors.

   O perplex'd diſcompoſition, O ridling diſtemper, O miſerable condition of Man.

noun

1. 1

   obsoleteA curtain; bedcurtain.

2. 2

   One of the pair of curtains enclosing an altar on the north and south.

verb

1. 1

   obsoleteTo plait.

Forms

plural

riddles

past tense

riddled

past participle

riddled

present participle

riddling

third person singular

riddles