• IPA: /ˈɹɪdəl/

riddle (plural riddles)

1. A verbal puzzle, mystery, or other problem of an intellectual nature.

   Synonyms: enigma, conundrum, brain-teaser

   Here's a riddle: It's black, and white, and red all over. What is it?

   • 1671, John Milton, “Samson Agonistes, […]”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: Printed by J. M[acock] for John Starkey […], OCLC 228732398 ↗, page 72 ↗:

     To wring from me and tell to them my ſecret, / That ſolv'd the riddle which I had propos'd.

   • 1907, Robert William Chambers, chapter VIII, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, OCLC 24962326 ↗:

     Elbows almost touching they leaned at ease, idly reading the almost obliterated lines engraved there. ¶ "I never understood it," she observed, lightly scornful. "What occult meaning has a sun-dial for the spooney? I'm sure I don't want to read riddles in a strange gentleman's optics."

2. An ancient verbal, poetic, or literary form, in which, rather than a rhyme scheme, there are parallel opposing expressions with a hidden meaning.

• a riddle wrapped up in an enigma
• riddle stick

• French: énigme, devinette, devinaille
• German: Rätsel
• Italian: enigma, indovinello
• Portuguese: enigma, charada, adivinha
• Russian: зага́дка
• Spanish: enigma, acertijo, adivinanza, quisicosa

riddle (riddles, present participle riddling; past and past participle riddled)

1. To speak ambiguously or enigmatically.
2. (transitive) To solve, answer, or explicate a riddle or question.

   Riddle me this.

• German: enträtseln
• Italian: risolvere, spiegare
• Russian: разга́дывать

riddle (plural riddles)

1. A sieve with coarse meshes, usually of wire, for separating coarser materials from finer, as chaff from grain, cinders from ashes, or gravel from sand.
2. A board with a row of pins, set zigzag, between which wire is drawn to straighten it.

riddle (riddles, present participle riddling; past and past participle riddled)

1. To put something through a riddle or sieve#Noun|sieve, to sieve#Verb|sieve, to sift#Verb|sift.

   You have to riddle the gravel before you lay it on the road.

2. To fill with holes like a riddle.

   The shots from his gun began to riddle the targets.

3. To fill or spread throughout; to pervade.

   Your argument is riddled with errors.

• French: cribler
• Italian: setacciare
• Russian: просеивать
• Spanish: cribar, harnear (Chile)

• French: cribler
• German: durchlöchern
• Italian: crivellare, forare
• Russian: изрешечивать
• Spanish: agujerear

• French: cribler
• Italian: cospargere, riempire
• Russian: заполонять
• Spanish: plagar

riddle (plural riddles)

1. (obsolete) A curtain; bed-curtain
2. (religious) One of the pair of curtains enclosing an altar on the north and south

riddle (riddles, present participle riddling; past and past participle riddled)

1. (transitive, obsolete) To plait

1. Surname
2. A city in Oregon.