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meddle. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
meddle, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
meddle in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
meddle you have here. The definition of the word
meddle will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of
meddle, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Etymology
From Middle English medlen, from Anglo-Norman medler, from Early Medieval Latin misculāre, derived from Latin misceō (“to mix”).
Pronunciation
Verb
meddle (third-person singular simple present meddles, present participle meddling, simple past and past participle meddled)
- To interfere in or with; to concern oneself with unduly.
- Synonyms: dabble, stick one's nose into, stick one's oar in
1689 December (indicated as 1690), [John Locke], “Who Heir?”, in Two Treatises of Government: , London: Awnsham Churchill, , →OCLC, book I, paragraph 126, page 161:[…] the Civil Lawyers […] have medled in a matter, that belongs not to them; […].
2017 January 14, “Thailand's new king rejects the army's proposed constitution”, in The Economist:There is much to dislike about the proposed constitution, which will keep elected governments beholden to a senate nominated by the junta and to a suite of meddling committees.
- (obsolete) To interest or engage oneself; to have to do (with), in a good sense.
1734, Isaac Barrow, “Lecture II. Of the Particular Division of the Mathematical Sciences”, in John Kirkby, transl., The Usefulness of Mathematical Learning Explained and Demonstrated: Being Mathematical Lectures Read in the Publick Schools at the University of Cambridge. , London: Stephen Austen, , →OCLC, page 14:The Pythagoreans who, as Ariſtotle ſays, were the firſt among the Greeks, that meddled with Mathematics, divided them into four Parts, of which, two were Pure and Primary, namely Arithmetic and Geometry; and the other two Mixed and Secondary, as Muſic and Spheres, i. e. Aſtronomy.
- (obsolete) To mix (something) with some other substance; to commingle, combine, blend.
- Synonyms: bemingle, combine, ming; see also Thesaurus:mix
1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto I”, in The Faerie Queene. , London: [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 204:[H]e cutt a lock of all their heare, / Which medling with their blood & earth, he threw / Into the graue, […].
- (intransitive, now US regional) To have sex.
- Synonyms: do it, get it on, ming; see also Thesaurus:copulate
1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter V, in Le Morte Darthur, book XVII:But after god came to Adam and bad hym knowe his wyf flesshly as nature requyred / Soo lay Adam with his wyf vnder the same tree / and anone the tree whiche was whyte and ful grene as ony grasse and alle that came oute of hit / and in the same tyme that they medled to gyders there was Abel begoten / thus was the tree longe of grene colour- (please add an English translation of this quotation)
1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: , 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC, partition 2, section 5, member 1, subsection v, page 323:Take a Rammes head that neuer medled with an Ewe, cut off at a blow, and the hornes onely taken away, boyle it well skinne and wooll together, […].
Derived terms
Translations
to interfere in affairs
- Azerbaijani: qarışmaq, qatışmaq
- Bulgarian: меся се (mesja se)
- Catalan: ficar-se (ca)
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 插手 (zh) (chāshǒu), 干預 (zh) (gānyù)
- Czech: vměšovat, plést se impf, zasahovat impf
- Dutch: zich (nl) moeien (nl), tussenkomen (nl), bemoeien (nl)
- Finnish: sekaantua (fi), sotkeentua (fi), sotkeutua (fi)
- French: s’ingérer (fr), se mêler (fr)
- Galician: meterse (gl), entremeter
- German: sich einmischen (de)
- Greek: ανακατεύομαι (el) (anakatévomai)
- Ancient Greek: πολυπραγμονέω (polupragmonéō)
- Hebrew: התערב
- Hungarian: beleavatkozik (hu)
- Italian: immischiarsi (it)
- Japanese: おせっかいをする (o-sekkai-o suru)
- Latin: admisceō, immisceo
- Macedonian: се ме́ша (se méša)
- Maori: raweke, auwaha, rahurahu, haukeke, hūrau, whawhe
- Ottoman Turkish: پرمقلمق (parmaklamak), یاپشمق (yapışmak)
- Portuguese: intrometer (pt)
- Romanian: băga (ro), amesteca (ro), băga nasul unde nu-i fierbe oala, interveni (ro)
- Russian: вме́шиваться (ru) impf (vméšivatʹsja), вмеша́ться (ru) pf (vmešátʹsja), лезть (ru) impf (leztʹ) (disapprobative)
- Spanish: entrometerse (es), inmiscuirse (es), injerirse (es), mangonear (es) (colloquial)
- Swedish: lägga sig i (sv)
- Tagalog: manghimasok, makialam
- Turkish: burnunu sokmak (tr)
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to mix with other substance
Translations to be checked
Anagrams