With all precincts reporting...

[Jed Hartman]

Okay, so I'm way behind.  But I'm enjoying reading what people submitted
even if I'm way too late to actually participate.

>raddle -- (n.)  A chute with mesh of different sizes for separating sand,
>pebbles, and gravel.
>By:  Pierre
   This is actually "riddle," no?  Which MW10 defines as "a coarse sieve"?
I've seen something similar used in archaeological digs to separate
artifacts from dirt.  (And similar kinds of sifters sometimes used to sort
gold from dirt, I think.)

>raddle -- 1. (n.)  An unexpected success.  2. (v.)  To succeed
>unexpectedly, esp. when striving for failure.
   :)  I assumed this one was Elliott providing a ringer def.

>raddle -- (v.)  To tear a pair of hose, resulting in a run or a ladder.
   This was one of several this round that sounded right to me, making me
think the real word for this must be similar to "raddle."  Is there a real
word for this?  Or am I just thinking of "ladder"?

>Eric:  'My unconscious is battering me with the sentence "His body was
>raddled with cancer", from some unknown science fiction story from my
>past.  Assuming that that isn't merely a braino for "riddled"'
   I was thinking something similar; I think we're both really thinking of
"riddled."

>raddle -- (v.)  to dye unevenly, so that colors bleed into each other.
   I was also thinking that "raddled" meant "mottled"; perhaps I saw it
used in regard to sheep at one point and misinterpreted due to context...
But that made this one sound plausible.

   Btw, MW10 also lists the verb "raddle" as meaning "to twist together :
INTERWEAVE".  Sort of the opposite of Kir's def, and kinda related to
Judith's.

>raddle -- (n.)  (UK agr.)  Red ochre used to dye living sheep.
>By:  Daniel Pool, _What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew_
>(see also the results of any Web search on "raddle sheep" for
>practical hints)
   Like this one:

http://www.lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~matsuoka/EG-Cumberland.html

"Cumberland Sheep-Shearers"
by Elizabeth Gaskell

...

When the sheep is divided into its fleece and itself, it becomes the
property of two persons.  [...much elided...]  Out of the sun, in the dark
shadow of the cart-house, a pan of red-hot coals glowed in a trivet; and
upon them was placed an iron basin holding tar and raddle, or ruddle.
Hither the right hand troop of boys dragged the poor naked sheep to be
'smitten' -- that is to say, marked with the initials or cypher of the
owner. ... after the sheep were thus marked, they were turned out to the
moor, and the crowd of bleating lambs that sent up an incessant moan for
their lost mothers; each found out the ewe to which it belonged the moment
she was turned out of the yard, and the placid contentment of the sheep
that wandered away up the hillside, with their little lambs trotting by
them, gave just the necessary touch of peace and repose to the scene. There
were all the classical elements for the representation of life; there were
the 'Old men and maidens, young men and children' of the Psalmist; there
were all the stages and conditions of being that sing forth their farewell
to the departing crusaders in the 'Saint's Tragedy.'

>Pierre:  "That reminds me of the joke about someone who accidentally
>dropped a lamb into a vat. It fetched double the price because of its
>bright blue color. She soon started a business buying lambs and selling
>them in various colors. She became known as the biggest lamb dyer in
>Texas."
   :)  :)  :)

   This def reminded me of a proposal by Daedalus (wacky science guy) to
feed dye to sheep in such a way that their wool grew out pre-dyed...

>raddle -- (v., archaic)  To suffer an affliction, esp. pox or mange.
   Again makes me think of "raddled with disease."


--jed