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Webster 1913 Edition

Meddle

Med′dleˊ

,
Verb.
I.
[
imp. & p. p.
Meddled
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Meddling
.]
[OE.
medlen
to mix, OF.
medler
,
mesler
, F.
mêler
, LL.
misculare
, a dim. fr. L.
miscere
to mix. √271. See
Mix
, and cf.
Medley
,
Mellay
.]
1.
To mix; to mingle.
[Obs.]
More to know
Did never
meddle
with my thoughts.
Shakespeare
2.
To interest or engage one’s self; to have to do; – in a good sense.
[Obs.]
Barrow.
Study to be quiet, and to
meddle
with your own business.
Tyndale.
3.
To interest or engage one's self unnecessarily or impertinently, to interfere or busy one's self improperly with another's affairs; specifically, to handle or distrub another's property without permission; – often followed by
with
or
in
.
Why shouldst thou
meddle
to thy hurt?
2 Kings xiv. 10.
The civil lawyers . . . have
meddled
in a matter that belongs not to them.
Locke.
To meddle and make
,
to intrude one's self into another person's concerns.
[Archaic]
Shak.
Syn. – To interpose; interfere; intermeddle.

Med′dle

,
Verb.
T.
To mix; to mingle.
[Obs.]
Chaucer.
“Wine
meddled
with gall.”
Wyclif (Matt. xxvii. 34).

Webster 1828 Edition

Meddle

MED'DLE

, v.i.
1.
To have to do; to take part; to interpose and act in the concerns of others, or in affairs in which one's interposition is not necessary; often with the sense of intrusion or officiousness.
I have thus far been an upright judge, not meddling with the design nor disposition.
What hast thou to do to meddle with the affairs of my family?
Why should'st thou meddle to thy hurt? 2 Kings 14.
2.
To have to do; to touch; to handle. Meddle not with edge-tools, is an admonition to children. When the object is specified, meddle is properly followed by with or in; usually by the former.
The civil lawyers--have meddled in a matter that belongs not to them.

MED'DLE

,
Verb.
T.
To mix, to mingle.
He meddled his talk with many a tear.

Definition 2024

meddle

meddle

English

Verb

meddle ‎(third-person singular simple present meddles, present participle meddling, simple past and past participle meddled)

  1. (obsolete) To mix (something) with some other substance; to commingle, combine, blend. [14th-17thc.]
    • 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 […].
  2. (intransitive, now US regional) To have sex. [from 14thc.]
    • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, chapter v, in Le Morte Darthur, book XVII:
      But after god came to Adam and bad hym knowe his wyf flesshly as nature requyred / Soo lay Adam with his wyf vnder the same tree / and anone the tree whiche was whyte and ful grene as ony grasse and alle that came oute of hit / and in the same tyme that they medled to gyders there was Abel begoten / thus was the tree longe of grene colour
    • 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 […].
  3. To interfere in or with; to concern oneself with unduly. [from 14thc.]
    • Bible, 2 Kings xiv.10:
      Why shouldst thou meddle to thy hurt?
    • John Locke
      The civil lawyers […] have meddled in a matter that belongs not to them.
  4. (obsolete) To interest or engage oneself; to have to do (with), in a good sense.
    • Tyndale
      Study to be quiet, and to meddle with your own business.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Barrow to this entry?)

Derived terms

Translations

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Etymology

From Anglo-Norman medler, variant of Anglo-Norman and Old French mesler, meller, from Late Latin misculare, from Latin miscere ‎(“to mix”).

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