Pud"dle (?), n. [OE. podel; cf. LG. pudel, Ir. & Gael. plod pool.]

1.

A small quantity of dirty standing water; a muddy plash; a small pool.

Spenser.

2.

Clay, or a mixture of clay and sand, kneaded or worked, when wet, to render it impervious to water.

Puddle poet, a low or worthless poet. [R.]

Fuller.

 

© Webster 1913.


Pud"dle, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Puddled (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Puddling (?).]

1.

To make foul or muddy; to pollute with dirt; to mix dirt with (water).

Some unhatched practice . . . Hath puddled his clear spirit. Shak.

2. (a)

To make dense or close, as clay or loam, by working when wet, so as to render impervious to water.

(b)

To make impervious to liquids by means of puddle; to apply puddle to.

3.

To subject to the process of puddling, as iron, so as to convert it from the condition of cast iron to that of wrought iron.

Ure.

Puddled steel, steel made directly from cast iron by a modification of the puddling process.

 

© Webster 1913.


Pud"dle, v. i.

To make a dirty stir.

[Obs.]

R. Junius.

 

© Webster 1913.

Webster has missed the interesting note that 'puddle' is the diminutive form of the Old English word pudd, meaning 'ditch' or 'furrow'.

While historically puddle has been used to refer to small pools and ponds as well as the smaller rain puddles, today we tend to use it mostly for quite small poolings of water, and specifically for those that we expect to drain away of evaporate in a matter of hours or days.

Iron Noder

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