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noddle. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
noddle, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
noddle in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
noddle you have here. The definition of the word
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English
Etymology 1
Noun
noddle (plural noddles)
- (UK, informal) The head; the part of the body of an animal or human which contains the brain, mouth and main sense organs.
1596, Tho[mas] Nashe, “Dialogus”, in Haue with You to Saffron-Walden. Or, Gabriell Harveys Hunt is Up. , London: John Danter, →OCLC; republished as J[ohn] P[ayne] C[ollier], editor, Have with You to Saffron-Walden (Miscellaneous Tracts; Temp. Eliz. and Jac. I), ,
→OCLC,
page 111:
But being restored to the open aire, the cafe with him was little altred; for no roofe had he to hide his noddle in, or whither he might go to set up his rest, but in the streets under a bulk he should have been constrainted to have kenneld […]
- (UK, informal) The head as the seat of mental capacity or intellect.
1612–1620, [Miguel de Cervantes], Thomas Shelton, transl., The History of the Valorous and Wittie Knight-errant Don-Quixote of the Mancha. , London: William Stansby, for Ed Blount and W. Barret, →OCLC, page 123:No doubt (said the Barber) but I wonder not so much at the Knights madnesse, as the Squires simplicity, that beleeves so in the Islands, and I think all the Art in the world will not drive that out of his noddle.
1762, [Laurence Sterne], chapter XXXVII, in The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, volume V, London: T. Becket and P. A. Dehondt, , →OCLC, page 128:Novv vvhat can have got into that precious noddle of thine, my dear brother Toby? cried my father, mentally.
- (obsolete) The back of the head; nape.
1562, Guglielmo Gratarolo, translated by William Fulwood, The Castel of Memorie, volume I:They muste absteine from ouer much slepe, and not to slepe in the day time, nor [upon] the noddle of the head […]
Quotations
For more quotations using this term, see Citations:noddle.
See also
Verb
noddle (third-person singular simple present noddles, present participle noddling, simple past and past participle noddled)
- (intransitive) To nod repeatedly.
Derived terms
Etymology 2
Verb
noddle (third-person singular simple present noddles, present participle noddling, simple past and past participle noddled)
- Alternative form of noodle (“improvise musically”).
1977, Musician, Player and Listener, number 9, page 4:[…] a rolling bass figure in 2/4 over which two semi-tuned electric guitars are noddling rhythm and blues.
1987, John Schaefer, New sounds: a listener's guide to new music, page 89:The album is almost ruined by some muzak-style noddling for strings and keyboards.