Library / English Dictionary

RIDDLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A coarse sieve (as for gravel)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("riddle" is a kind of...):

screen; sieve (a strainer for separating lumps from powdered material or grading particles)

Derivation:

riddle (separate with a riddle, as grain from chaff)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A difficult problem

Synonyms:

brain-teaser; conundrum; enigma; riddle

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("riddle" is a kind of...):

problem (a question raised for consideration or solution)

Derivation:

riddle (set a difficult problem or riddle)

riddle (speak in riddles)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Set a difficult problem or riddle

Example:

riddle me a riddle

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Hypernyms (to "riddle" is one way to...):

amaze; baffle; beat; bewilder; dumbfound; flummox; get; gravel; mystify; nonplus; perplex; pose; puzzle; stick; stupefy; vex (be a mystery or bewildering to)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Something ----s somebody

Derivation:

riddle (a difficult problem)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Explain a riddle

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Hypernyms (to "riddle" is one way to...):

figure out; lick; puzzle out; solve; work; work out (find the solution to (a problem or question) or understand the meaning of)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 3

Meaning:

Speak in riddles

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "riddle" is one way to...):

communicate; intercommunicate (transmit thoughts or feelings)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

riddle (a difficult problem)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Spread or diffuse through

Example:

His campaign was riddled with accusations and personal attacks

Synonyms:

diffuse; imbue; interpenetrate; penetrate; permeate; pervade; riddle

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "riddle" is one way to...):

penetrate; perforate (pass into or through, often by overcoming resistance)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "riddle"):

spiritise; spiritize (imbue with a spirit)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Sense 5

Meaning:

Pierce with many holes

Example:

The bullets riddled his body

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "riddle" is one way to...):

pierce (make a hole into)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Sense 6

Meaning:

Separate with a riddle, as grain from chaff

Synonyms:

riddle; screen

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "riddle" is one way to...):

sieve; sift; strain (separate by passing through a sieve or other straining device to separate out coarser elements)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

riddle (a coarse sieve (as for gravel))

Credits

 Context examples: 

The first thing I did, on my own account, when I came back, was to take a night-walk to Norwood, and, like the subject of a venerable riddle of my childhood, to go round and round the house, without ever touching the house, thinking about Dora.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

But I can remember nothing;—not even that particular riddle which you have heard me mention; I can only recollect the first stanza; and there are several.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Well, gentlemen, have I read you the riddle aright, or is there any point which you would query?

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

How many times I went up and down the street, and round the square—painfully aware of being a much better answer to the old riddle than the original one—before I could persuade myself to go up the steps and knock, is no matter now.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

“So many clever riddles as there used to be when he was young—he wondered he could not remember them! but he hoped he should in time.”

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

His good friend Perry, too, whom he had spoken to on the subject, did not at present recollect any thing of the riddle kind; but he had desired Perry to be upon the watch, and as he went about so much, something, he thought, might come from that quarter.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

It was much easier to chat than to study; much pleasanter to let her imagination range and work at Harriet's fortune, than to be labouring to enlarge her comprehension or exercise it on sober facts; and the only literary pursuit which engaged Harriet at present, the only mental provision she was making for the evening of life, was the collecting and transcribing all the riddles of every sort that she could meet with, into a thin quarto of hot-pressed paper, made up by her friend, and ornamented with ciphers and trophies.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)