Category:Riddle

Rid"dle, n. Etym: [oe. ridil, as. hridder; akin to g. reiter, l. Cribrum, and to gr. 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"dle, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Riddled; p. pr. & vb. n. Riddling.]

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 Rid"dle, n. Etym: [for riddels, s being misunderstood as the plural Ending; oe. ridels, redels. As. rraadsel, g. räthsel; fr. As. r to Counsel or advise, also, to guess. sq. root116. Cf. Read.]

Defn: 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. Milton. 't was a strange riddle of a lady. Hudibras.

Riddle Rid"dle, v. t.

Defn: to explain; to solve; to unriddle. Riddle me this, and guess him if you can. Dryden.

Riddle Rid"dle, v. i.

Defn: to speak ambiguously or enigmatically. "lysander riddels very Prettily." Shak.

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---excerpt from the Illustrated Bible Dictionary

Riddle - (Heb. hodah ). The oldest and, strictly speaking, the only example of a riddle was that propounded by Samson (Judges 14:12). The parabolic prophecy in Ezekiel 17:2-18 is there called a "riddle." It was rather, however, an allegory. The word "darkly" in 1 Corinthians 13:12 is the rendering of the Greek enigma; marg., "in a riddle."