Forms: 1 adela, 2 adele, 3 adel, ? 5–8 adle, 6– addle. North. adle. [OE. adela is cogn. w. MLG. adele, mod.G. adel, mire, puddle; O.Swed. adel in ko-adel cow-urine. (Not connected with OE. ádl disease.) After the OE. period found only in northern literature, except in ADDLE-EGG (where it is now treated as an adj.); but still widely diffused in the dialects.]
1. Stinking urine, or other liquid filth; mire.
a. 1000. Enigma, in Cod. Exon., 110, 1. Ðæt hér yfle adelan stinceþ.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Homil., II. 380. For ðære fúlnysse fenlices adelan.
1513. Douglas, Virgil, Aeneis, IV. viii. 98. Scho gan behald In blak adill the hallowit watter cald Changit in the altare.
1710. Ruddiman, Gloss. to Douglas, Adill, addle, rotten, stinking water.
1789. Burns (Chambers ed.), 75. Then lug out your ladle, Deal brimstone like adle.
1847. Halliwell, Addle-pool, A pool or puddle, near a dunghill for receiving the fluid from it. South.
1864. E. Capern, Devon Provinc., Addle-pool, stagnant water.
2. ‘The dry lees of wine.’ In Bailey, vol. II., 1731; whence also in Ash, 1775.
B. attrib. and adj.
1. In addle egg [addle orig. the prec. sb. used attrib. (= med.L. ovum ūrīnæ egg of urine or putrid liquid, a perversion of cl. L. ovum ūrinum, repr. Gr. οὔριον ὠόν, wind-egg), at length, c. 1600, treated as adj.] A rotten or putrid egg; one that produces no chicken. Applied usually to a fecundated egg in which through exposure to cold the chick dies during hatching; but also to an egg having no germ, which soon begins to decompose; and apparently sometimes to an egg no longer fit for food because partly hatched. (The idea of abortiveness led to many word-plays on addle and idle.)
a. 1225. Owl & Nightingale, 133. Ever he cuth that he com thonne, That he com of than adel-eye, Theȝ he a fro neste leie.
1563. Nowell, in Strype, Ann. Ref., xxxvi. (1709), 377. Hatched us out such a sort of goodly decrees, worse than addle eggs.
1589. Pappe with an Hatchet (1844), 11. These Martins were hatcht of addle egges, els could they not haue such idle heads.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., I. ii. 145. Pan. He esteemes her no more then I esteeme an addle egge. Cre. If you loue an addle egge as well as you loue an idle head, you would eate chickens i’th’shell.
1611. Cotgr., Oeuf abortif, an addle egge, or an egge whose shell is not yet hard.
1617. Minsheu, Ductor, An A’dle Egge q. idle egge, because it is good for nothing, oeuf qui n’a point de germe … [Du.] windeye q. ovum subuentaneum, a windie egge. L. Ovum urinum, because it hath water in it like urine. Ibid. (1623), Span. Dict., Huevo guero, an addle egge, or rotten egge.
1632. Sherwood, Adle or Addle; as an Adle Egg, Oeuf pourci, corrumpu, ou, sans germe; oeuf abortif.
1667. Denham, Direct. to Painter, II. ii. 10, in T.C.P. (1689), 12/2. Alas, even they, though shell’d in treble Oak, Will prove an Addle Egge, with double Yolk.
1739. Gray, Lett. (1775), 43. We dined at Montreuil, much to our hearts’ content, on stinking mutton cutlets, addle eggs, and ditch water.
1768. Willoughby, in Pennant, Brit. Zool., I. 125. Upon which lay a young one and an addle egg.
1840. Gen. Thompson, Exerc. (1842), V. 191. Why must the 130 millions which are involved in railways be an addle egg?
1863. Kingsley, Wat. Bab. (1878), 193. The distilled liquor of addle eggs.
b. as simple adj.
1592. Shaks., Rom. & Jul., III. i. 25. Thy head hath bin beaten as addle as an egge for quarreling.
1643. Horn & Robotham, Gate of Lang. Unlocked, xiv. § 147. Poultry shut up in a henhouse lay eggs … and sitting on them (unlesse they be addle) they hatch young chicks.
1655. Moufet & Bennet, Health’s Improv. (1746), 225. New Eggs are ever full, but old Eggs lose every Day somewhat of their Substance, and in the end waxing addle, stink like Urine, whereupon they were called of the Latins Ova Urinæ.
1781. Pennant, in Phil. Trans., LXXI. 70. They [Turkeys] sit on their eggs with such perseverance, that if they are not taken away when addle, the hens will almost perish with hunger before they will quit the nest.
2. fig. Empty, idle, vain; also (with reference to the decomposed or disorganized condition of an addle egg), muddled, confused, unsound.
[1706. Phillips, Addle, Empty or rotten; properly spoken of an Egg, and figuratively apply’d to a Hair-brain’d, Empty scull’d Fellow.]
a. 1593. H. Smith, Works (1867), II. 480. Sudden qualm, or sullen care, Or addle-fit of idle fear.
1594. Hooker, Eccl. Politie, III. (1617), 101. Concerning his preaching, their very by-word was Αόγος ἐξουθενημένος, Addle speech, emptie talke.
1591. Lyly, Endymion, IV. iii. 58. Till sleepe has rock’d his addle head.
1616. R. C., Times’ Whistle, v. 1835. Thus they drink round, Vntill their adle heads doe make the ground Seeme blew vnto them.
1622. M. Fotherby, Atheomastix, I. xi. § 2, 113. The corrupt fancies of their owne addle heads.
1674. Fairfax, Bulk. & Selv. World, 59. Somewhat that is the fondling of our addle brains.
1693. W. Robertson, Phraseol. Gener., 1333. I wish him an ounce more wit in his addle head.
c. 1800. R. Fellowes, Milton’s 2nd Def. (1847), 924/2. That tiresome and addle epistle which follows. Ibid., 923/1. The shell was no sooner broken than they loathed the addle and putrid contents.
b. as simple adj.
1602. T. Fitzherbert, Apology, 15. Your owne imagination, which was no lesse Idle, then your head was addle all that day.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., III. iv. I. ii. (1651), 657. Their brains were addle, and their bellies as empty of meat as their heads of wit.
1690. Dryden, Don Sebastian, Prol. 24. Thus far the poet; but his brains grow addle, And all the rest is purely from his noddle.
1795. Burke, Scarcity, Wks. VII. 419. The brains of the people growing more and more addle with every sort of visionary speculation.
3. dialectally. Unsound, crazy.
1847. Halliwell, Adle, Unsound, unwell, East.
1876. Surrey Prov. (Eng. Dial. Soc.), Adle … weak, shaky; said of a fence the posts of which have become loose.
C. Comb.
1. Addle-brain, addle-head, addle-pate; one whose head is addled, a stupid bungler.
1601. Death of Huntington, I. i. in Hazl., Dodsl., VIII. 219. I and my mates Like addle-pates.
1641. ‘Smectymnuus,’ Vindic. Answ. Humb. Remonstr., § 16. 205. Call them if you will, Popish fooles, and addleheads.
1849. Miss Muloch, Ogilvies, xviii. (1875), 141. It is quite too overpowering for such addle-pates as this gentleman and myself.
1880. Disraeli, Endymion, I. viii. 71. ‘Never mind Lord Waverly and such addle-brains,’ said Zenobia.
2. Addle-brained, addle-headed, addle-pated, a.; applied contemptuously to one whose intellect seems muddled.
1630. J. Taylor (Water Poet), Wks., II. 252/2. Let euery idle addle-pated gull With stinking sweet Tobacco stuffe his skull.
a. 1670. Hacket, Life of Williams, II. 166. Unstable people flock after these coachmen-preachers, watchmaking-preachers, barber-preachers and such addle-headed companions.
1848. Dickens, Lett. (1880), I. 202. I was quite addle-headed for the time being.
1864. [F. W. Robinson], Mattie:—A Stray, III. ix. 311–2. You will not envy them their happiness—two weak, addlepated mortals, only fitted for each other.
1866. Motley, Dutch Rep., IV. v. 633. The addle-brained Oberstein had confessed … the enormous blunder which he had committed.
3. Addle-headedness, fatuity.
1835. Gen. P. Thompson, Exerc. (1842), III. 435. Calculate the addle-headedness of such inveterate old women, as should go about recommending to try Juno for dry nurse.
