Riddle, n.
Etymology: [OE. ridil, AS. hridder; akin to G. reiter, L. cribrum, and to Gr. 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.
4 other Webster entries under this spelling
Riddle, 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.
Riddle, n.
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.
Riddle, v. t.
To explain; to solve; to unriddle. Riddle me this, and guess him if you can. Dryden.
Riddle, v. i.
To speak ambiguously or enigmatically. "Lysander riddels very prettily." Shak.
Shades of meaning
Conundrum, a word of unknown origin, signifies some question or statement in which some hidden and fanciful resemblance is involved, the answer often depending upon a pun; an enigma is a dark saying; a paradox is a true statement that at first appears absurd or contradictory; a problem is something thrown out for solution; puzzle (from oppose) referred originally to the intricate arguments by which disputants opposed each other in the old philosophic schools. The riddle is an ambiguous or paradoxical statement with a hidden meaning to be guessed by the mental acuteness of the one to whom it is proposed; the riddle is not so petty as the conundrum, and may require much acuteness for its answer; a problem may require simply study and scholarship, as a problem in mathematics; a puzzle may be in something other than verbal statement, as a dissected map or any perplexing mechanical contrivance. Both enigma and puzzle may be applied to any matter difficult of answer or solution, enigma conveying an idea of greater dignity, puzzle applying to something more commonplace and mechanical; there are many dark enigmas in human life and in the course of providence; the location of a missing object is often a puzzle.