Dictionary Definition
addle
Verb
2 become rotten; "addled eggs"
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Etymology
Old English adlen, adilen, "to gain, acquire"; probably from Icelandic öðlask, akin to oðal. Compare Allodial.Pronunciation
-
- Rhymes: -ædəl
Adjective
Translations
confused
Verb
- To make addle; to grow addle; to muddle; as, he addled his brain. "Their eggs were addled." Cowper.
- (provincial) To earn by labor. Forby.
- (provincial) To
thrive or grow; to ripen.
-
- Kill ivy, else tree will addle no more. - Tusser.
-
Translations
transitiveintransitive
- Bosnian: zbuniti se, smesti se
- Serbian:
- Cyrillic:
збунити се,
смести се
- Roman: zbuniti se, smesti se
- Cyrillic:
збунити се,
смести се
Extensive Definition
Lady Blanche Addle was a fictitious character
created by the British author Mary Dunn (1900
-1958) First published in the 1930's Dunn's Lady Addle books
amusingly parody and satire of the then British
upper
classes, and paricularly the works of Walburga,
Lady Paget; Daisy,
Princess of Pless and
Adeline, Countess of Cardigan and Lancastre. It could also have
mentioned Lady Sybil
Grant.In her two books Mary Dunn traces the life Lady Blanche
Addle nee Coot daughter of the 13th Earl of Coot from her Victorian
childhood until World War
II.
The books are written in the first person in the
form of "memoirs". Lady
Blanche details in gushing tones the daily and mundane details of
her and her family's uneventful life in such a fashion that she
believes they will be of great interest to future generations.
written with a subtle humour of which Lady Addle is seemingly
unaware. Lady Addle fancies herself a poetess and author whose literary works are
of high merit when in fact they are banal, and she gives hilarious
suggestions on cookery and entertaining as serious fact.
A second character detailed in the books is
"Millicent, Duchess of Brisket", commonly known as "Mipsie." She is
Lady Blanche's much married sister, a nymphomaniac, black
marketeer, brothel
keeper and gold digger, facts which Lady Blanche unwittingly
details while concentrating only on the tragedies of Mipsie's life,
and how misunderstood she is.
The books are illustrated by genuine Victorian
photographs of members of the British upper class that have been
hideously altered. For example, Lady Blanche's mother is
heavy-browed and cross-eyed, yet the photograph is captioned "My
beautiful Mother", Mipsie always shown with wild hair and
protruding teeth is captioned "Mipsie at her loveliest"
Lady Blanche symbolises in a humorous way those
females of the early 20th
century, British aristocracy who
subconsciously felt themselves more talented and intelligent than
those of less exulted birth encouraged by a period when it was not
uncommon for the pronouncements and literary efforts off upper
class women to be eagerly consumed by an aspiring bourgeoisie.
Lady Blanche's philosophy can best be explained
in the preface to Lady Addle Remembers
-
- "''Lady Addle hesitated to publish her memoirs on the grounds it would involve certain disclosures about some of the most illustrious names in Europe.........Destiny - has decreed that my ways should be in high places, I have played Halma with Lord Salisbury. I have bicycled with Bismark, I have knitted a comforter for a King. It is not fitting that I should speak of such moments''"
yet she forces herself to do so
References
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
addle the wits, amaze, astound, baffle, ball up, bamboozle, beat, becloud, bedazzle, befuddle, bemuse, besot, bewilder, boggle, bother, buffalo, bug, cloud, confound, confuse, daze, dazzle, discombobulate, discomfit, discompose, disconcert, disorganize, disorient, distract, disturb, dumbfound, embarrass, entangle, flabbergast, floor, flummox, flurry, fluster, flutter, fog, fuddle, fuss, get, inebriate, intoxicate, keep in suspense,
lick, maze, mist, mix up, moider, muddle, mystify, nonplus, perplex, perturb, pother, put out, puzzle, raise hell, rattle, ruffle, stick, stump, throw, throw into confusion, throw
off, unsettle, upset