• IPA: /ˈhʌdəl/

huddle (plural huddles)

1. A dense and disorderly crowd.
2. (American football) A brief meeting of all the players from one team that are on the field with the purpose of planning the following play.
3. (bridge) A hesitation during play to think about one's next move.

• French: foule dense et désordonnée
• German: wirrer Haufen
• Italian: calca, folla
• Spanish: chusma

huddle (huddles, present participle huddling; past and past participle huddled)

1. (intransitive) To crowd together.
   • 1912: Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan of the Apes, Chapter 4

     During all these operations the apes who had entered sat huddled near the door watching their chief, while those outside strained and crowded to catch a glimpse of what transpired within.

   The sheep huddled together seeking warmth.
2. (intransitive) To curl one's legs up to the chest and keep one's arms close to the torso; to crouch; to assume a position similar to that of an embryo in the womb.
3. To get together and discuss a topic.
   • 2012 November 2, Ken Belson, "," New York Times (retrieved 2 November 2012):

     George Hirsch, chairman of the board of Road Runners, said officials huddled all day Friday, hoping to devise an alternate race. They considered replacing the marathon with a race that would comprise the final 10 miles of marathon, starting at the base of the Queensboro 59th Street Bridge on the Manhattan side. But that was not deemed plausible, Mr. Hirsch said.

4. (intransitive, American football) To form a huddle.
5. (transitive) To crowd (things) together; to mingle confusedly; to assemble without order or system.
   • 1689 December (indicated as 1690)​, [John Locke], Two Treatises of Government: […], London: […] Awnsham Churchill, […], OCLC 83985187 ↗:

     Our adversary, huddling several suppositions together, […] makes a medley and confusion.

6. (transitive) To do, make, or put, in haste or roughly; hence, to do imperfectly; usually with a following preposition or adverb (huddle on, huddle up, huddle together).

   • Huddle up a peace.

   • 1709, John Dryden, Georgics

     Let him forecast his work with timely care, / Which else is huddled when the skies are fair.

   • 1728, Jonathan Swift, The Journal of a Modern Lady

     Now, in all haste, they huddle on / Their hoods, their cloaks, and get them gone.

7. (bridge, intransitive) To hesitate during play while thinking about one's next move.

huddle

1. Muted, as if emitted by a huddled embryo
   • 1931, William Faulkner, Sanctuary, Library of America, 1985, p.51:

     Gowan snored, each respiration chocking to a huddle fall, as though he would never breathe again.

• French: se blottir
• Italian: accalcarsi
• Russian: толпи́ться
• Spanish: amontonarse

• French: se blottir
• Spanish: acurrucarse

1. Surname