dial.
1. Disorder, disarray, confusion, disturbance.
1825. Britton, Beauties Wiltsh., Gloss. (E. D. S.), Caddle, a term signifying confusion or embarrassment. To be in a caddle, means to be overwhelmed with business.
1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxf., xxx. (1889), 316 (D.). ‘Ther wur no sich a caddle about sick folk when I wur a bwoy.’
1863. Mrs. Marsh, Heathside Farm, I. 70. Mrs. Stone, a short, plump, Wiltshire matron … apologised for being found in such a caddle.
2. Trouble, bother.
1865. Reader, 12 Aug., 182/2. The English won’t take the trouble—won’t, as they say with us in Somerset, be at the caddle to look after such things.
