Rid"dle (?), n. [OE. ridil, AS. hridder; akin to G. reiter, L. cribrum, and to Gr. to distinguish, separate, and G. rein clean. See Crisis, Certain.]
1.
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.
2.
A board having a row of pins, set zigzag, between which wire is drawn to straighten it.
© Webster 1913.
Rid"dle, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Riddled (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Riddling (?).]
1.
To separate, as grain from the chaff, with a riddle; to pass through a riddle; as, riddle wheat; to riddle coal or gravel.
2.
To perforate so as to make like a riddle; to make many holes in; as, a house riddled with shot.
© Webster 1913.
Rid"dle, n. [For riddels, s being misunderstood as the plural ending; OE. ridels, redels. AS. rdels; akin to D. raadsel, G. rathsel; fr. AS. rdan to counsel or advise, also, to guess. &root;116. Cf. Read.]
Something proposed to be solved by guessing or conjecture; a puzzling question; an ambiguous proposition; an enigma; hence, anything ambiguous or puzzling.
To wring from me, and tell to them, my secret,
That solved the riddle which I had proposed.
Milton.
'T was a strange riddle of a lady.
Hudibras.
© Webster 1913.
Rid"dle, v. t.
To explain; to solve; to unriddle.
Riddle me this, and guess him if you can.
Dryden.
© Webster 1913.
Rid"dle, v. i.
To speak ambiguously or enigmatically.
"Lysander
riddels very prettily."
Shak.
© Webster 1913.