fuddle
pronunciation
How to pronounce fuddle in British English:
UK ['fʌdl]
How to pronounce fuddle in American English:
US ['fʌdəl]
-
- Verb:
- make stupid with alcohol
- consume alcohol
- be confusing or perplexing to; cause to be unable to think clearly
Word Origin
- fuddle (v.)
- 1580s, "to get drunk" (intransitive); c. 1600, "to confuse as though with drink" (transitive), of obscure origin, perhaps from Low German fuddeln "work in a slovenly manner (as if drunk)," from fuddle "worthless cloth." The more common derivative befuddle dates only to 1873. Related: Fuddled; fuddling. A hard-drinker in 17c. might be called a fuddle-cap (1660s).
Example
- 1. The fuddle spent together with you the rest of the spring , the hottest , I where to go .
- 2. Mr sonnenfeldt was contemptuous of other interpreters at nuremberg who , through a thick lard of swabian consonants or polish syntax , could fuddle questioner and questioned alike .
- 3. He deplores the tendency of modern prime ministers and presidents to want to be their own foreign ministers and to believe themselves capable of cutting through diplomatic fuddle with charm and dash .