| 释义 |
▪ I. addle, n. and a.|ˈæd(ə)l|
Forms: 1 adela, 2 adele, 3 adel, ? 5–8 adle, 6– addle. North. adle |ˈeɪd(ə)l|.
[OE. adela is cogn. w. MLG. adele, mod.G. adel, mire, puddle; O.Swed. adel in ko-adel cow-urine. (Not connected with OE. ádl disease.) After the OE. period found only in northern literature, except in addle-egg (where it is now treated as an adj.); but still widely diffused in the dialects.]
A. n.
1. Stinking urine, or other liquid filth; mire.
a1000Enigma in Cod. Exon. 110, 1 Ðæt hér yfle adelan stinceþ. c1000ælfric Homil. ii. 380 For ðære fúlnysse fenlices adelan. 1513Douglas Virgil, Aeneis iv. viii. 98 Scho gan behald In blak adill the hallowit watter cald Changit in the altare. 1710Ruddiman Gloss. to Douglas, Adill, addle, rotten, stinking water. 1789Burns (Chambers ed.) 75 Then lug out your ladle, Deal brimstone like adle. 1847Halliwell Addle-pool, A pool or puddle, near a dunghill for receiving the fluid from it. South. 1864E. Capern Devon Provinc., Addle-pool, stagnant water.
2. ‘The dry lees of wine.’ In Bailey, vol. II, 1731; whence also in Ash 1775.
B. attrib. and adj.
1. a. In addle egg [addle orig. the n. used attrib. (= med.L. ovum ūrīnæ egg of urine or putrid liquid, a perversion of cl. L. ovum ūrinum, repr. Gr. οὔριον ὠόν, wind-egg), at length, c 1600, treated as adj.] A rotten or putrid egg; one that produces no chicken. Applied usually to a fecundated egg in which through exposure to cold the chick dies during hatching; but also to an egg having no germ, which soon begins to decompose; and apparently sometimes to an egg no longer fit for food because partly hatched. (The idea of abortiveness led to many word-plays on addle and idle.)
a1250Owl & Nightingale 133 Ever he cuth that he com thonne, That he com of than adel-eye, Theȝ he a fro neste leie. 1563Nowell in Strype Ann. Ref. xxxvi. (1709) 377 Hatched us out such a sort of goodly decrees, worse than addle eggs. 1589Pappe with an Hatchet (1844) 11 These Martins were hatcht of addle egges, els could they not haue such idle heads. 1606Shakes. Tr. & Cr. i. ii. 145 Pan. He esteemes her no more then I esteeme an addle egge. Cre. If you loue an addle egge as well as you loue an idle head, you would eate chickens i'th'shell. 1611Cotgr., Oeuf abortif, an addle egge, or an egge whose shell is not yet hard. 1617Minsheu Ductor, An A'dle Egge q. idle egge, because it is good for nothing, oeuf qui n'a point de germe..[Du.] windeye q. ovum subuentaneum, a windie egge. L. Ovum urinum, because it hath water in it like urine. 1623― Span. Dict., Huevo guero, an addle egge, or rotten egge. 1632Sherwood, Adle or Addle; as an Adle Egg, Oeuf pourci, corrumpu, ou, sans germe; oeuf abortif. 1667Denham Direct. to Painter ii. ii. 10 in T.C.P. (1689) 12/2 Alas, even they, though shell'd in treble Oak, Will prove an Addle Egge, with double Yolk. 1739Gray Lett. (1775) 43 We dined at Montreuil, much to our hearts' content, on stinking mutton cutlets, addle eggs, and ditch water. 1768Willoughby in Pennant Brit. Zool. I. 125 Upon which lay a young one and an addle egg. 1840Gen. Thompson Exerc. (1842) V. 191 Why must the 130 millions which are involved in railways be an addle egg? 1863Kingsley Wat. Bab. (1878) 193 The distilled liquor of addle eggs.
b. as simple adj.
1592Shakes. Rom. & Jul. iii. i. 25 Thy head hath bin beaten as addle as an egge for quarreling. 1643Horn & Robotham Gate of Lang. Unlocked xiv. §147 Poultry shut up in a hen⁓house lay eggs..and sitting on them (unlesse they be addle) they hatch young chicks. 1655Moffet & Bennet Health's Improv. (1746) 225 New Eggs are ever full, but old Eggs lose every Day somewhat of their Substance, and in the end waxing addle, stink like Urine, whereupon they were called of the Latins Ova Urinæ. 1781Pennant in Phil. Trans. LXXI. 70 They [Turkeys] sit on their eggs with such perseverance, that if they are not taken away when addle, the hens will almost perish with hunger before they will quit the nest.
2. a. fig. Empty, idle, vain; also (with reference to the decomposed or disorganized condition of an addle egg), muddled, confused, unsound.[1706Phillips, Addle, Empty or rotten; properly spoken of an Egg, and figuratively apply'd to a Hair-brain'd, Empty scull'd Fellow.] a1593H. Smith Works (1867) II. 480 Sudden qualm, or sullen care, Or addle-fit of idle fear. 1594Hooker Eccl. Politie iii. (1617) 101 Concerning his preaching, their very by-word was λόγος ἐξουθενηµένος, Addle speech, emptie talke. 1591Lyly Endymion iv. iii. 58 Till sleepe has rock'd his addle head. 1616R. C. Times' Whistle v. 1835 Thus they drink round, Vntill their adle heads doe make the ground Seeme blew vnto them. 1622M. Fotherby Atheomastix i. xi. §2, 113 The corrupt fancies of their owne addle heads. 1674Fairfax Bulk. & Selv. World 59 Somewhat that is the fondling of our addle brains. 1693W. Robertson Phraseol. Gener. 1333, I wish him an ounce more wit in his addle head. c1800R. Fellowes Milton's 2nd Def. (1847) 924/2 That tiresome and addle epistle which follows. Ibid. 923/1 The shell was no sooner broken than they loathed the addle and putrid contents.
b. as simple adj.
1602T. Fitzherbert Apology 15 Your owne imagination, which was no lesse Idle, then your head was addle all that day. 1621Burton Anat. Mel. iii. iv. i. ii. (1651) 657 Their brains were addle, and their bellies as empty of meat as their heads of wit. 1690Dryden Don Sebastian Prol. 24 Thus far the poet; but his brains grow addle, And all the rest is purely from his noddle. 1795Burke Scarcity, Wks. VII. 419 The brains of the people growing more and more addle with every sort of visionary speculation.
3. dialectally. Unsound, crazy.
1847Halliwell, Adle, Unsound, unwell, East. 1876Surrey Prov. (Eng. Dial. Soc.), Adle [ēi·d'l] weak, shaky; said of a fence the posts of which have become loose.
C. Comb.
1. addle-brain, addle-head, addle-pate; one whose head is addled, a stupid bungler.
1601Death of Huntington i. i. in Hazl. Dodsl. VIII. 219, I and my mates Like addle-pates. 1641‘Smectymnuus’ Vindic. Answ. Humb. Remonstr. §16.205 Call them if you will, Popish fooles, and addleheads. 1849Miss Muloch Ogilvies xviii. (1875) 141 It is quite too overpowering for such addle-pates as this gentleman and myself. 1880Disraeli Endym. I. viii. 71 ‘Never mind Lord Waverly and such addle⁓brains,’ said Zenobia.
2. addle-brained, addle-headed, addle-pated, a.; applied contemptuously to one whose intellect seems muddled.
1630J. Taylor (Water Poet) Wks. ii. 252/2 Let euery idle addle-pated gull With stinking sweet Tobacco stuffe his skull. a1670Hacket Life of Williams ii. 166 Unstable people flock after these coachmen-preachers, watchmaking-preachers, barber-preachers and such addle-headed companions. 1848Dickens Lett. (1880) I. 202, I was quite addle-headed for the time being. 1864Mattie, A Stray III. 212 Two weak addle-pated mortals, only fitted for each other. 1866Motley Dutch Rep. iv. v. 633 The addle-brained Oberstein had confessed..the enormous blunder which he had committed.
3. addle-headedness, fatuity.
1835Gen. P. Thompson Exerc. (1842) III. 435 Calculate the addle-headedness of such inveterate old women, as should go about recommending to try Juno for dry nurse.
▪ II. addle, v.1|ˈæd(ə)l|
[f. addle a.; cf. to sour, to wet, to cool, etc.]
1. trans. To make addle; to muddle; to confuse (the brain); to spoil, make abortive.
c1712Otway C. Marius ii. ii. One bottle to his Lady's health quite addles him. 1841Dickens Lett. (ed. 2) I. 43, I have addled my head with writing all day. 1849― Barn. Rudge (1866) I. x. 50 He addled..his brain by shaking his head. 1878Simpson Sch. Shaks. I. 97 His cold procrastination addled the victory of Lepanto, as it had formerly addled that of St. Quentin.
2. intr. To grow addle (as an egg); also fig.
1812–21Combe Dr. Syntax xi. (Chandos) 42 Though his courage 'gan to addle, He still stuck close upon his saddle. 1829Southey Pilgr. Compost. iv. Wks. VII. 266 Not one of these eggs ever addled. 1857H. Miller Test Rocks viii. 337 For in still water, however pure, the eggs in a few weeks addle and die.
▪ III. † addle, v.2 Obs. or dial.|æd(ə)l|
[a. ON. öðla, refl. öðla-sk to acquire (for oneself) property, f. óðal property. Found only in northern writers, and now exclusively dialectal, but used everywhere from Leicestershire to Northumberland; not in Scotland. (Spelt by some compilers of local glossaries eddle, after a false etymology in OE. ed-léan a reward.)]
1. trans. To acquire or gain as one's own; to earn.
c1200Ormulum 16102 Hemm addlenn swa þe maste wa Þatt aniȝ mann maȝȝ addlenn. Ibid. 6235 & heore leȝhe birrþ hemm beon Rædiȝ, þann itt iss addledd. c1460Towneley Myst., Crucif. 218 If thou be kyng we shalle thank adylle, For we shalle sett the in thy sadylle. 1483Cathol. Anglic. To Adylle: commereri, promereri, mereri, adipisci, adquirere. 1570Levins Manip. To addil, demerere: to addle, lucrari, mereri. 1674Ray N. Countrey Wds. 2 To Adle or Addle; to Earn. 1680Trial [at York] in Howell State Trials (1816) VII. 1169 He would give me more than I could addle (that is, earn) in seven years. 1825Brockett Gloss. N. Country Wds., Addle, Eddle, v. To earn by labour. Addlings, labourer's wages. 1862in Chamber's Jrnl. 30 Apr. 216 [West Riding of York] A good man 'll addle aboot four shillings or four and sixpence a day. 1865Harland Lanc. Lyrics 76 He says he's addled fifty pund, An bowt a kist an' clock.
2. absol. Of crops: To produce, yield, ripen fruit.
1580Tusser Husb. li. 6 Where Iuie imbraceth the tree verie sore, Kill Iuie, or else tree will addle no more. 1865Cornh. Mag. July 31 Crops..in Westmoreland, when they ripen well, are said to ‘addle well,’ as if a notion of working and earning were implied. |