croodle

English

Etymology 1

Compare cruddle, crudle.

Verb

croodle (third-person singular simple present croodles, present participle croodling, simple past and past participle croodled)

1. (UK, dialect, obsolete) To cower or cuddle together, as from fear or cold; to lie close and snug together, as pigs in straw.
   • a. 1810, Robert Tannahill, The Wood O' Craigie Lea:

     Far ben thy dark green plantin's shade
     The cushat croodles am'rously

   • 1858 January, Charles Kingsley, “My Winter-Garden”, in Frasers Magazine:

     Oh! that I had wings-not as a dove , to fly home to its nest and croodle there

   • 1898, William Edwards Tirebuck, Meg of the Scarlet Fool:

     Mrs. Dootson bridged the other half, and, croodling down to Meg's height, she somewhat forced the friendship

2. (UK, dialect, obsolete) To fawn or coax.

Etymology 2

Onomatopoeic "croo" + -le.

Verb

croodle (third-person singular simple present croodles, present participle croodling, simple past and past participle croodled)

1. (originally Scotland, dialect) To make a cooing sound.
   • 1899, Zoologist:

     Too dark to see well, but judge from movements of old bird's head and croodling noise.

   • 2017, Thomas Rohrer, Worms Drowning in the Rain‎:

     Do pigeons croodle, or only doves?

Noun

croodle (plural croodles)

1. Such a bird vocalisation, especially that given by doves.
   • 1888, Gordon Stables, In Touch with Nature: Tales and Sketches from the Life, page 46:

     [A]nd no sound falls on my ears, except the distant roar of a passing train, the song of linnets, and croodle of turtle-dove and cushat.

   • 1997, Aidan Higgins, Flotsam and Jetsam, page 265:

     [A] third-storey apartment under the eaves loud with the croodles and canoodling of amorous pigeons.

References

“croodle”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• Colored, cedorol, colored, crooled, decolor