riddle

noun

1. A verbal puzzle, mystery, or other problem of an intellectual nature.

   “Here's a riddle: It's black, and white, and red all over. What is it?”

   “To wring from me and tell to them my ſecret, / That ſolv'd the riddle which I had propos'd.”

   “Elbows almost touching they leaned at ease, idly reading the almost obliterated lines engraved there. ¶ "I never understood it," she observed, lightly scornful. "What occult meaning has a sun-dial for the spooney? I'm sure I don't want to read riddles in a strange gentleman's optics."”

   “I'm a riddle so strong, you can't break me”

2. An ancient verbal, poetic, or literary form, in which, rather than a rhyme scheme, there are parallel opposing expressions with a hidden meaning.
3. A sieve with coarse meshes, usually of wire, for separating coarser materials from finer, as chaff from grain, cinders from ashes, or gravel from sand.
4. A board with a row of pins, set zigzag, between which wire is drawn to straighten it.
5. (obsolete)A curtain; bedcurtain.
6. One of the pair of curtains enclosing an altar on the north and south.

verb

1. (intransitive)To speak ambiguously or enigmatically.
2. (transitive)To solve, answer, or explicate a riddle or question.

   “Riddle me this.”

3. To put something through a riddle or sieve; to sieve; to sift.

   “You have to riddle the gravel before you lay it on the road.”

   “In its finest form – two years old or more – leaf mould can be riddled (sieved) and used, mixed 50/50 with sand, to make fine potting compost for seeds and cuttings.”

4. To fill with holes like a riddle.

   “The shots from his gun began to riddle the targets.”

   “New Alresford is constantly mispronounced, T-shaped, honeycombed with cellars, packed with antique shops, riddled with woodworm, surrounded by watercress. The name - which means 'ford by the alders' - is pronounced 'Allsford'; and no one ever uses 'New', though they do call the adjoining village Old Alresford.”

   “Kalinin Bay is also in trouble, trading fire with Japanese destroyers and taking hits from both them and cruisers at the same time. Unlike the Gambier Bay, however, it does not appear that these ships have realized they need to switch to high explosive from armor-piercing, and, despite being riddled with shellfire, the ship stays afloat, despite this rather-unequal battering going on for another twenty to thirty minutes.”

5. (figuratively)To fill or spread throughout; to pervade (with something destructive or weakening).

   “Your argument is riddled with errors.”

   “O perplex'd diſcompoſition, O ridling diſtemper, O miſerable condition of Man.”

6. (obsolete, transitive)To plait.

name

1. A surname.
2. A place in the United States:
3. A place in the United States:
4. A place in the United States:
5. A place in the United States: