croodle
English
Etymology 1
Compare cruddle, crudle.
Verb
croodle (third-person singular simple present croodles, present participle croodling, simple past and past participle croodled)
- (UK, dialect, obsolete) To cower or cuddle together, as from fear or cold; to lie close and snug together, as pigs in straw.
- a. 1810, Robert Tannahill, The Wood O' Craigie Lea:
- Far ben thy dark green plantin's shade
The cushat croodles am'rously
- 1858, Charles Kingsley, "My Winter-Garden", in Frasers Magazine January 1858
- Oh! that I had wings-not as a dove , to fly home to its nest and croodle there
- 1898, William Edwards Tirebuck, Meg of the Scarlet Fool:
- Mrs. Dootson bridged the other half, and, croodling down to Meg's height, she somewhat forced the friendship
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- (UK, dialect, obsolete) To fawn or coax.
Etymology 2
Onomatopoeic "croo" + -le.
Verb
croodle (third-person singular simple present croodles, present participle croodling, simple past and past participle croodled)
- (originally Scotland, dialect) To make a cooing sound.
- 1899, Zoologist:
- Too dark to see well, but judge from movements of old bird's head and croodling noise.
- 2017, Thomas Rohrer, Worms Drowning in the Rain:
- Do pigeons croodle, or only doves?
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Noun
croodle (plural croodles)
- Such a bird vocalisation, especially that given by doves.
- 1888, Gordon Stables, In Touch with Nature: Tales and Sketches from the Life, page 46:
- [A]nd no sound falls on my ears, except the distant roar of a passing train, the song of linnets, and croodle of turtle-dove and cushat.
- 1997, Aidan Higgins, Flotsam and Jetsam, page 265:
- [A] third-storey apartment under the eaves loud with the croodles and canoodling of amorous pigeons.
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References
croodle in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
Anagrams
- Colored, cedorol, colored, crooled, decolor