v. Now dial. [Alteration of PUDDLE v.; in later use partly f. SPUD sb. 3.]
1. intr. To puddle, in various senses; to work feebly or ineffectively.
1630. J. Taylor (Water P.), Water Cormorant, Wks. III. 1/3. Hee grubs and spuddles for his prey in muddy holes and obscure cauernes.
1704. J. Pitts, Acc. Mohammetans, vii. 103. In the very place where the Child spuddled with his Feet, the Water flowed out.
1830. Cobbett, Rur. Rides (1885), II. 314. The labourers who spuddle about the ground in the little dips between those sand-hills.
1883–. in dialect glossaries (Hants., Wilts., Som., Dev.).
2. trans. To turn over, dig up, stir or work at, lightly or superficially.
1805. R. W. Dickson, Pract. Agric., II. 600. This purpose is well accomplished … by spuddling the land with a kind of plough.
1856. Morton, Cycl. Agric., II. 726. Spuddling (Kent); see Broad-sharing [‘ploughing shallow and wide with a broad share, without turning it over’].
1875–. in dialect glossaries (Warw., Suss., Som., Dev.).
