Word.ws English Dictionary

fuddling

fuddling is the present participle and gerund of fuddle.

Noun

fuddling (countable and uncountable, plural fuddlings)

  1. Synonym of drunkenness, intoxication from alcohol.
    Synonyms:
    drunkenness, intoxication from alcohol
  2. Synonym of alcohol, an intoxicant.
    • ...the chiefe fudling they make in the Island is Rumbullion, alias Kill-Devill, and this is made of suggar canes distilled, a hott, hellish and terrible liquor.c. 1651, "A Briefe Description of the Island of Barbados" in Trinity College MS G4, p. 15]
    Synonyms:
    alcohol

Meaning of fuddle

Verb

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

  1. (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
  2. (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...
  3. (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

See all 7 meanings of fuddle

Synonyms of fuddling

Forms of fuddling

pluralfuddlings

Phrases with fuddling

Questions about fuddling

What does fuddling mean?
Fuddling means synonym of drunkenness, intoxication from alcohol.
What is fuddling the present participle and gerund of?
Fuddling is the present participle and gerund of fuddle.
What part of speech is fuddling?
Fuddling is a noun.
What is the plural of fuddling?
The plural of fuddling is fuddlings.

Words near fuddling in the dictionary

  1. fuddlement
  2. fuddler
  3. fuddlers
  4. fuddles
  5. fuddlesome
  6. fuddling
  7. fuddling cup
  8. fuddling cups
  9. fuddlings
  10. fudds
  11. fuddy-duddery

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: fuddling (page history and authors); fuddle (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.

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