Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Red ocherous iron ore, used in dyeing and marking.
- transitive verb To dye or mark with or as if with red ocher.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To sift together; mix as through a sieve.
- To raddle; interweave; crossplait, as twigs or split sticks in making latticework or wattles.
- noun Same as
reddle . - noun . Ruddiness; redness.
- To mark with ruddle.
- noun A dialectal variant of
riddle .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To mark with ruddle; to raddle; to rouge.
- noun obsolete A riddle or sieve.
- transitive verb obsolete To raddle or twist.
- noun (Min.) A species of red earth colored by iron sesquioxide; red ocher.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A form of
red ochre sometimes used to marksheep - verb To mark something with red ochre
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a red iron ore used in dyeing and marking
- verb twist or braid together, interlace
- verb redden as if with a red ocher color
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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There are those who think that remodelled waists and new caps had better be kept to the towns; but such people, if they would follow out their own argument, would wish to see plough-boys painted with ruddle and milkmaids covered with skins.
Framley Parsonage 2004
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It was extracted from ruddle (red ochre) and limonite
The Land of Midian 2003
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Such are the kinds of stones that cannot be melted, and realgar, and ochre, and ruddle, and sulphur, and the other things of that kind, most
Meteorology 2002
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"Your worship," replied Sancho, "had better mark it with ruddle, like the inscriptions on the walls of class rooms, that those who see it may see it plain."
Don Quixote 2002
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All along the road the stems and lower branches of the trees are dyed a deep brick-dust color, and I hear moving and pathetic stories of how it ruins clothes, not only utterly spoiling black silk dresses, but staining white petticoats and children's frocks and pinafores with a border of color exactly like the ruddle with which sheep are branded.
Lippincott's Magazine of Popular Literature and Science Volume 17, No. 098, February, 1876 Various
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He had made himself rolling drunk and, suitably to the occasion, had been made into a Highlander by the simple process of robbing him of his breeches and rubbing his head with ruddle.
The Yeoman Adventurer George W. Gough
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I now rubbed together some ruddle and dry soil, and the mixture gave a necessary touch of coarseness to her hands.
The Yeoman Adventurer George W. Gough
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I tall 'ee, gentlemen, I hain't the ram-faced, ruddle-nosed old fule yeou reckon I be.
Traffics and Discoveries Rudyard Kipling 1900
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Jud turn'd rahnd an gurned at th 'frunt o' th 'show wi' his faace aw ruddle.
English Dialects From the Eighth Century to the Present Day 1873
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An Jud let floy a good un, an th 'mon wi' th 'spunge had to pick th' blackeymoor up this toime an put th 'ruddle upo' his faace just at-under th'ee.
English Dialects From the Eighth Century to the Present Day 1873
yarb commented on the word ruddle
A lamb,
joints stiff, brittle, jabs at maternal clogged fleece,
spattered red (which is ruddle but looks already
like blood and soon must be).
- Peter Reading, Spring Letter, from For the Municipality's Elderly, 1974
June 22, 2008