guddle

English

WOTD – 5 May 2021

Etymology

Children guddling for fish in the Krka river near Male Rebrce, Slovenia, in the 1950s and 1960s.

From Scots guddle, imitative of the splashing of water, and modelled after words like muddle and puddle, perhaps influenced by Scots gutter (“to spatter with mud”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, Scotland) IPA^(key): /ˈɡʌd(ə)l/

• Audio (Received Pronunciation):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɡʌd(ə)l/, [ˈɡə-]
• Rhymes: -ʌdəl
• Hyphenation: gud‧dle

Verb

guddle (third-person singular simple present guddles, present participle guddling, simple past and past participle guddled)

1. (transitive, intransitive, Scotland, fishing) To catch (fish) with the hands, especially by groping at the bank of a stream or under stones.

   Synonym: (usually of large catfish) noodle

Derived terms

• guddler
• guddling (noun)

Translations

to catch (fish) with the hands, especially by groping at the bank of a stream or under stones

Further reading

• fishing techniques on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “guddle, v.²”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, March 2019.
• “guddle, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Scots

Etymology

Unknown, but see etymology of English section.

Verb

guddle

1. To catch fish with the hands, especially by groping under stones or at the banks of a stream.
2. To dabble (as a duck).
3. To play in the gutters, mud or puddles.
4. To do work of a dirty or greasy nature.

Noun

guddle (plural guddles)

1. mess, muddle