I. ˈrad ə l noun
( -s )
Etymology: probably alteration of ruddle (I)
: red ocher ; also : other coloring matter used for marking animals
II. transitive verb
( -ed/-ing/-s )
1. : to mark or paint with or as if with raddle : color highly with rouge : ruddle
people who never raddled their faces with greasepaint — Times Literary Supplement
a raddled barmaid — Janet Tobitt
raddled tile floor — Flora Thompson
raddled with the paint of pokeberry juice — Ellen Glasgow
2. Australia : to mark the brisket of a ram with raddle to identify the ewes he serves
3. : pit , scar
when they kept to the open sea … his broadsides raddled them — Time
poverty-haunted, crime- raddled neighborhood — Edmund Fuller
III. noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle French rudelle, redelle stout pole, rail of a cart, probably from Middle High German reitel
1. chiefly dialect : a long supple stick, rod, or branch often interwoven with others in making a hedge or fence or plastered with clay to make a wall
2. chiefly dialect : a structure made with raddles
3. : a bar usually of wood having pegs between which warp yarns are guided while being wound on the beam
IV. transitive verb
( -ed/-ing/-s )
1. : to twist together : make by interlacing : interweave
2. : to regulate by means of a raddle
V. transitive verb
Etymology: perhaps from raddle (III)
Scotland : beat , thrash