What does "riddle" mean?
Riddle: A board having a row of pins, set zigzag, between which wire is drawn to straighten it.
Additional senses
- 2.To separate, as grain from the chaff, with a riddle; to pass through a riddle; as, riddle wheat; to riddle coal or gravel.
- 3.To perforate so as to make like a riddle; to make many holes in; as, a house riddled with shot.
- 4.Something proposed to be solved by guessing or conjecture; a puzzling question; an ambiguous proposition; an enigma; hence, anything ambiguous or puzzling. To wring from me, and tell to them, my secret, That solved the riddle which I had proposed. Milton. 'T was a strange riddle of a lady. Hudibras.
- 5.To explain; to solve; to unriddle. Riddle me this, and guess him if you can. Dryden.
- 6.To speak ambiguously or enigmatically. "Lysander riddels very prettily." Shak.
Sources
- Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 edition (public domain, via GCIDE / Project Gutenberg).
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- Published: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00 · Modified: 2026-07-17T00:00:00-07:00