Meddle
Pronunciation
Origin
From Anglo-Norman medler, variant of Anglo-Norman and Old French mesler, meller, from Late Latin misculare, from Latin miscere ("to mix").
Full definition of meddle
Verb
- (obsolete) To mix (something) with some other substance; to commingle, combine, blend. 14th-17th c.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, II.i:he cut a locke of all their heare,
Which medling with their bloud and earth, he threw
Into the graue ... - (intransitive, now US regional) To have sex. from 14th c.
- 1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur, Book XVII:And in the same tyme that they medled togydirs, Abell was begotyn.
- 1621, Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy, II.5.1.v:Take a ram's head that never meddled with an ewe, cut off at a blow, and the horns only taken away, boil it well, skin and wool together ...
- (to interfere in affairs)To interfere in or with; to concern oneself with unduly. from 14th c.
- Bible, 2 Kings xiv. 10Why shouldst thou meddle to thy hurt?
- John LockeThe civil lawyers ... have meddled in a matter that belongs not to them.
- (obsolete) To interest or engage oneself; to have to do (with), in a good sense.
- TyndaleStudy to be quiet, and to meddle with your own business.