fuddle

English

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.) Compare Dutch vod (“soft”), German dialect fuddeln (“to swindle”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfʌdəl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌdəl

Verb

fuddle (third-person singular simple present fuddles, present participle fuddling, simple past and past participle fuddled)

1. (transitive) To confuse or befuddle.
   • 1973, “A Rum Tale”, in Grand Hotel, performed by Procol Harum:

     She's fuddled my fancy, she's muddled me good / I've taken to drinking, and given up food

2. (transitive) To intoxicate.
   • 1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 33, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1849–1850, →OCLC:

     If an author fuddles himself, I don’t know why he should be let off a headache the next morning […]

   • 1863, Henry Walter Bates, chapter IV, in The Naturalist on the River Amazons, volume 1:

     There was a kind of festival going on, and the people fuddled themselves with caxirí, an intoxicating drink invented by the Indians. It is made by soaking mandioca cakes in water until fermentation takes place, and tastes like new beer.

3. (intransitive) To become intoxicated; to get drunk.
   • 1860, John Diprose, The red, white & blue monster song book:

     Pipes I blew, on malt I fuddled, / A lushy man! / Till my mind and head got muddled, / Dissipated man!

Derived terms

• (to confuse): fuddlesome (“confusing”), fuddle-duddle
• (to become intoxicated): fuddlecap, fuddler (“drunkard”), fuddling (“intoxication”), fuddling cup

Translations

confuse or befuddle

• Bulgarian: обърквам (bg) (obǎrkvam)
• Macedonian: збу́ни (zbúni)

intoxicate

• Bulgarian: напивам (bg) (napivam)
• German: trinken (de), saufen (de), sich betrinken, betütern (de)
• Macedonian: опи́јани (opíjani), о́пие (ópie), на́пие (nápie)

Noun

fuddle (countable and uncountable, plural fuddles)

1. Intoxication.
2. (uncountable) Intoxicating drink; liquor.
3. Muddle, confusion.
4. (UK, dialect, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Bedfordshire) A party or picnic where attendees bring food and wine; a kind of potluck.
   • 2007 December 21, Dave Hatfield, “Fuddle?”, in eGullet Forums‎^[1]:

     Yesterday we were invited to a fuddle. This is a new word & was a new experience for us. Very pleasant it was too.

   • 2009, thornbird [username], “Do you have a Christmas fuddle at your workplace?”, in Toluna‎^[2], archived from the original on 28 September 2021:

     When I was I work I loved the time when we had a fuddle. Everybody decided what they were going to bring so we had an even balance of grub. We had sandwiches or cobs of ham, cheese and pate, crisps, sausage rolls, pickled onions cocktail sausages, vol au vonts, swiss roll, and mince pies. We weren’t allowed booze on the premises but we made do with alcohol free drink. We were as stuffed as pigs and had a job to work for the rest of the day.

   • 2012 December 12, llamapup [username], “What to make for a Christmas fuddle?”, in BabyCentre Community‎^[3]:

     My husband has to take some food into his work for a Christmas fuddle.¶ I suggested he make Christmas pudding cupcakes, but he wasn't impressed.¶ What would you make and take?

   • 2013 December 16, nedluddsmother [username], “My work insists on having a Christmas fuddle, but it sounds like a sexual offence to me.”, in Reddit‎^[4], r/BritishProblems:

Translations

Intoxication

• Bulgarian: напиване n (napivane), пиянство (bg) n (pijanstvo)
• Macedonian: пи́јанство n (píjanstvo), пи́јаност f (píjanost), опи́еност f (opíenost)

confusion

• Bulgarian: объркване (bg) (obǎrkvane)
• Macedonian: збу́нетост f (zbúnetost)
• Polish: bajzel (pl) m