| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| riddle1 |
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| SYLLABICATION: | rid·dle |
| PRONUNCIATION: |  r d l |
| TRANSITIVE VERB: | Inflected forms: rid·dled, rid·dling, rid·dles
1. To pierce with numerous holes; perforate: riddle a target with bullets. 2. To spread throughout: “Election campaigns have always been riddled with demagogy and worse” (New Republic). 3. To put (gravel, for example) through a coarse sieve. | | NOUN: | A coarse sieve, as for gravel. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English ridelen, to sift, from riddil, sieve, from Old English hriddel. See krei- in Appendix I. | | OTHER FORMS: | riddler —NOUN
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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