addling

Syllables: addl·ingUK/ˈæ.də.lɪŋ/

addling is the alternative form of addlings.

addling is the present participle and gerund of addle.

Meaning of addlings

addlings pl (plural only)

(UK, Yorkshire, archaic, dialectal, plural, plural-only) Earnings.
- He din’t heve mich i t’way o addlins but it wor just enuff to get by.

addle (third-person singular simple present addles, present participle addling, simple past and past participle addled)

To make or become addled; to muddle or confuse.
- to addle someone's brain
To cause fertilised eggs to lose viability, by killing the developing embryo within through shaking, piercing, freezing or oiling, without breaking the shell.
- Their eggs were addled.1782, William Cowper, Pairing Time Anticipated

addle (third-person singular simple present addles, present participle addling, simple past and past participle addled)

(Northern England, provincial) To earn, earn by labor; earn money or one's living.
- ADDLINGS, wages. "Poor addlings," small pay for work. "Hard addlings," money laboriously acquired. "Saving's good addling," as the well known saying, "a penny saved is a penny gained."1855, "An inhabitant" [pseudonym; Francis Kildale Robinson], A Glossary of Yorkshire Words and Phrases, Collected in Whitby and the Neighbourhood. With Examples of their Colloquial Use, and Allusions...
(Northern England, provincial) To thrive or grow; to ripen.
- Kill ivy, or else tree will addle no more.1557 February 13 (Gregorian calendar), Thomas Tusser, A Hundreth Good Pointes of Husbandrie, London: […] Richard Tottel, →OCLC; republished London: […] Robert Triphook, […], and William Sancho, […]...

addling (uncountable)

The act of causing fertilised eggs to lose viability, by killing the developing embryo within through shaking, piercing, freezing or oiling, without breaking the shell or other outer layer.
- The familiar hatchery practice of agitating the eggs after they are eyed, called shocking or addling, ruptures the yolk membranes of the ever-tender sterile eggs. The result is a precipitation of the globulin and a whitening of the egg.1980, Earl Leitritz with Robert C[onklin] Lewis, Trout and Salmon Culture (Hatchery Methods) [California Fish Bulletin; 164], Oakland, Calif.: University of California Division of Agriculture and...
- Egg addling was important in several species, but it was not recorded what proportion of the unhatched eggs were fertile. Compared with the amount of egg addling in some other birds, the amount among raptors is often high. In part this addling is linked with food conditions, as mentioned, and...1993, Ian Newton, “Causes of Breeding Failure in Wild Raptors: A Review”, in Patrick T[homas] Redig, John E. Cooper, J. David Remple, D. Bruce Hunter, editors, Raptor Biomedicine, Minneapolis, Minn....

From addle + -ing.

What does addling mean?: Addling means the act of causing fertilised eggs to lose viability, by killing the developing embryo within through shaking, piercing, freezing or oiling, without breaking the shell or other outer layer.
What is addling the alternative form of?: Addling is the alternative form of addlings.
What part of speech is addling?: Addling is a noun.
How do you pronounce addling?: Addling is pronounced /ˈæ.də.lɪŋ/ (UK).

Adapted from Wiktionary: addling (page history and authors); addlings (page history and authors); addle (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-addling.ogg.

Cite this entry: “addling.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/addling. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.