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Riddle   /rˈɪdəl/   Listen
Riddle

noun
1.
A difficult problem.  Synonyms: brain-teaser, conundrum, enigma.
2.
A coarse sieve (as for gravel).
verb
(past & past part. riddled; pres. part. riddling)
1.
Pierce with many holes.
2.
Set a difficult problem or riddle.
3.
Separate with a riddle, as grain from chaff.  Synonym: screen.
4.
Spread or diffuse through.  Synonyms: diffuse, imbue, interpenetrate, penetrate, permeate, pervade.  "Music penetrated the entire building" , "His campaign was riddled with accusations and personal attacks"
5.
Speak in riddles.
6.
Explain a riddle.



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"Riddle" Quotes from Famous Books



... Negroes of the United States? Passing into its huge hopper and between its upper and nether millstones, are they to come out grist for the nation, or mere chaff, doomed like the Indian to ultimate extinction in the raging fires of racial and industrial rivalry and progress? Sphinx's riddle, say you, which yet awaits its Oedipus? Perhaps, though an examination of the past may show us that the riddle is not awaiting its Oedipus so much as his answer, which he has been writing slowly, word by word, and inexorably, ...
— Modern Industrialism and the Negroes of the United States - The American Negro Academy, Occasional Papers No. 12 • Archibald H. Grimke

... telling her Stories of Nuns, and endeavouring to bring her to the Knowledge of the true God: But of all Discourses, Caesar liked that the worst, and would never be reconciled to our Notions of the Trinity, of which he ever made a Jest; it was a Riddle he said would turn his Brain to conceive, and one could not make him understand what Faith was. However, these Conversations fail'd not altogether so well to divert him, that he liked the Company of us Women much above the Men, for he could not drink, and he is but an ill Companion ...
— The Works of Aphra Behn - Volume V • Aphra Behn

... life is like a pilgrimage Whats his life then that lives in mariage Tis Sisiphus his toyle that with a stone Doth doe what surely for ease must be done His laboures Journey's endles, tis no Riddle Since he's but halfe on's way that stands ...
— The Works of Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher - Vol. 2 of 10: Introduction to The Elder Brother • Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher

... home duties, yet leave this difficulty unfaced, in that they look for all the pleasure of their life outside home, and within that home allow themselves to live in an atmosphere of friction and peevishness. The girl who does that has left the riddle of home life unsolved: she was meant to wrestle with that difficulty till she wrung from it the blessing, the peace which comes only from self-conquest and acceptance of all the circumstances ...
— Stray Thoughts for Girls • Lucy H. M. Soulsby

... out alone, to try my luck with the riddle. As I entered the clearing, the hummer was seen at his post, and my suspicions fastened upon a small wild apple-tree, perhaps twenty rods distant. I went to examine it, and presently the bird followed me. He perched in its top, but seemed not to be jealous of my proximity, ...
— The Foot-path Way • Bradford Torrey


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