riddle

noun

/ˈrɪdl/

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a question that is difficult to understand, and that has a surprising answer, that you ask somebody as a game
- Stop talking in riddles (= saying things that are confusing)—say what you mean.
- Bilbo solves the riddle that unlocks the door to the mountain.
Topics Games and toysc1
a mysterious event or situation that you cannot explain synonym mystery
- the riddle of how the baby died
- The riddle of his identity was only solved when his brother saw him on TV.

Word Originnoun Old English rǣdels, rǣdelse ‘opinion, conjecture, riddle’; related to Dutch raadsel, German Rätsel, also to read.

verb

/ˈrɪdl/

[usually passive]

Verb Forms

present simple I / you / we / they riddle	/ˈrɪdl/ /ˈrɪdl/
he / she / it riddles	/ˈrɪdlz/ /ˈrɪdlz/
past simple riddled	/ˈrɪdld/ /ˈrɪdld/
past participle riddled	/ˈrɪdld/ /ˈrɪdld/
-ing form riddling	/ˈrɪdlɪŋ/ /ˈrɪdlɪŋ/

Idioms

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riddle somebody/something (with something) to make a lot of holes in somebody/something
- The car was riddled with bullets.
- a bullet-riddled car
Word Originverb late Old English hriddel, of Germanic origin; from an Indo-European root shared by Latin cribrum ‘sieve’, cernere ‘separate’, and Greek krinein ‘decide’.

Idioms

be riddled with something

to be full of something, especially something bad or unpleasant
- His body was riddled with cancer.
- Her typing was slow and riddled with mistakes.
- The woods are riddled with rabbit holes.