fuddle

/ˈfʌdəl/

fuddle verb: to confuse or befuddle.

Verb

fuddle (third-person singular simple present fuddles, present participle fuddling, simple past and past participle fuddled)

(transitive) To confuse or befuddle.
- She's fuddled my fancy, she's muddled me good / I've taken to drinking, and given up food1973, “A Rum Tale”, in Grand Hotel, performed by Procol Harum
(transitive) To intoxicate.
- If an author fuddles himself, I don’t know why he should be let off a headache the next morning […]1848 November – 1850 December, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 33, in The History of Pendennis. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published...
- There was a kind of festival going on, and the people fuddled themselves with caxirí, an intoxicating drink invented by the Indians. It is made by soaking mandioca cakes in water until fermentation takes place, and tastes like new beer.1863, Henry Walter Bates, chapter IV, in The Naturalist on the River Amazons, volume 1
(intransitive) To become intoxicated; to get drunk.
- Pipes I blew, on malt I fuddled, / A lushy man! / Till my mind and head got muddled, / Dissipated man!1860, John Diprose, The red, white & blue monster song book

fuddle (countable and uncountable, plural fuddles)

Intoxication.
(uncountable) Intoxicating drink; liquor.
Muddle, confusion.
(Derbyshire, UK, dialectal) A party or picnic where attendees bring food and wine; a kind of potluck.
- Yesterday we were invited to a fuddle. This is a new word & was a new experience for us. Very pleasant it was too.2007 December 21, Dave Hatfield, “Fuddle?”, in eGullet Forums
- When I was I work I loved the time when we had a fuddle. Everybody decided what they were going to bring so we had an even balance of grub. We had sandwiches or cobs of ham, cheese and pate, crisps, sausage rolls, pickled onions cocktail sausages, vol au vonts, swiss roll, and mince pies. We...2009, thornbird [username], “Do you have a Christmas fuddle at your workplace?”, in Toluna, archived from the original on 28 Sep 2021

குடிமயக்கம்

When I was I work I loved the time when we had a fuddle.2009, thornbird [username], “Do you have a Christmas fuddle at your workplace?”, in Toluna, archived from the original on 28 Sep 2021:
My husband has to take some food into his work for a Christmas fuddle.¶ I suggested he make Christmas pudding cupcakes, but he wasn't impressed.¶ What would you make and take?2012 December 12, llamapup [username], “What to make for a Christmas fuddle?”, in BabyCentre Community:

Verb
third-person singular present	fuddles
present participle	fuddling
past participle	fuddled
past	fuddled
Noun
plural	fuddles

Compare Dutch vod (“soft”), German dialect fuddeln (“to swindle”).

What does fuddle mean?: Fuddle means to confuse or befuddle.
What is fuddle in Tamil?: Fuddle in Tamil is குடிமயக்கம். See Fuddle meaning in Tamil.
How do you use fuddle in a sentence?: When I was I work I loved the time when we had a fuddle.
What part of speech is fuddle?: Fuddle can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce fuddle?: Fuddle is pronounced /ˈfʌdəl/.
What is the past tense of fuddle?: The past tense of fuddle is fuddled.

Adapted from Wiktionary: fuddle (page history and authors); fuddle (Tamil Wiktionary) (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-fuddle.wav.

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