Riddle
Riddle (rid"d'l) , noun
[Old English ridil, Anglo-Saxon hridder; akin to German reiter, Latin cribrum, and to Greek kri`nein to distinguish, separate, and German rein clean. See Crisis, Certain.]
1.
A sieve with coarse meshes, usually of wire, for separating coarser materials from finer, as chaff from grain, cinders from ashes, or gravel from sand.
2.
A board having a row of pins, set zigzag, between which wire is drawn to straighten it.
Riddle (rid"d'ld) , transitive verb
1.
To separate, as grain from the chaff, with a riddle; to pass through a riddle; as, riddle wheat; to riddle coal or gravel.
2.
To perforate so as to make like a riddle; to make many holes in; as, a house riddled with shot.
Riddle , noun
[For riddels, s being misunderstood as the plural ending; Old English ridels, redels. Anglo-Saxon radels; akin to Dutch raadsel, German rathsel; from Anglo-Saxon radan to counsel or advise, also, to guess. r116. Compare Read.]
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.
'T was a strange riddle of a lady.
Riddle , transitive verb
To explain; to solve; to unriddle.
Riddle me this, and guess him if you can.
Riddle , intransitive verb
To speak ambiguously or enigmatically.
Lysander riddles very prettily.