Obs. or dial. [a. ON. öðla, refl. öðla-sk to acquire (for oneself) property, f. öðal property. Found only in northern writers, and now exclusively dialectal, but used everywhere from Leicestershire to Northumberland; not in Scotland. (Spelt by some compilers of local glossaries eddle, after a false etymology in OE. ed-léan a reward.)]
1. trans. To acquire or gain as one’s own; to earn.
c. 1200. Ormulum, 16102. Hemm addlenn swa þe maste wa Þatt aniȝ mann maȝȝ addlenn. Ibid., 6235. & heore leȝhe birrþ hemm beon Radiȝ, þann itt iss addledd.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst., Crucif., 218. If thou be kyng we shalle thank adylle, For we shalle sett the in thy sadylle.
1483. Cathol. Anglic. To Adylle: commereri, promereri, mereri, adipisci, adquirere.
1570. Levins, Manip., To addil, demerere: to addle, lucrari, mereri.
1674. Ray, N. Countrey Wds., 2. To Adle or Addle; to Earn.
1680. Trial [at York], in Howell, State Trials (1816), VII. 1169. He would give me more than I could addle (that is, earn) in seven years.
1825. Brockett, Gloss. N. Country Wds., Addle, Eddle, v. To earn by labour. Addlings, labourer’s wages.
1862. in Chambers’ Jrnl., 30 April, 216. [West Riding of York] A good man ’ll addle aboot four shillings or four and sixpence a day.
1865. Harland, Lanc. Lyrics, 76. He says he’s addled fifty pund, An bowt a kist an’ clock.
2. absol. Of crops: To produce, yield, ripen fruit.
1580. Tusser, Husb., li. 6. Where Iuie imbraceth the tree verie sore, Kill Iuie, or else tree will addle no more.
1865. Cornh. Mag., July 31. Crops … in Westmoreland, when they ripen well, are said to ‘addle well,’ as if a notion of working and earning were implied.
