[Of obscure origin; cf. Du. vod soft, slack, loose, Ger. dial. fuddeln to swindle.]
1. intr. To have a drinking bout; to tipple, booze. Also, to fuddle it.
1588. Acc., in Morris, Chester (1895), 328. John Wright, for fuddleing and drinkinge with other leters and molestationers, just nothing.
1659. D. Pell, Impr. Sea, 116, note. See a Captain of a ship sending for this, and the other shandy fellow … to fuddle it in their cabbins.
1696. W. Mountague, Delights Holland, 184. The Men … sit up Gaming and Fuddling greatest part of Night.
1713. Pol. Ballads (1860), II. 137. Here Barons may talk, and Squires may fuddle.
1821. Joseph the Book-Man, 33. No man might drink That could not fuddle till he wink.
1863. Bates, Nat. Amazon, iii. (1864), 53. The Indian, generally too shy to ask directly for cashaça (rum), is then very bold; he asks for a frasco at once (two-and-a-half bottles), and says, if interrogated, that he is going to fuddle in honour of St. Thomé.
b. quasi-trans. with away. † Also, to empty (a pot) by drinking.
c. 1680. Roxb. Ball. (1890), VII. 77. She calls up her Neighbors, for to go and fuddle a Pot.
1756. Gentl. Mag., XXVI. 431. They fuddle away the day with riot and prophaneness.
2. trans. To confuse with or as with drink, intoxicate, render tipsy.
c. 1600. Timon, II. v. (1842), 37. Ile giue thee ale pragmaticall indeede Which, if thou drinke, shall fuddle thee hande and foote.
1633. May, Heir, I., in Hazl., Dodsley, XI. 523. Did you never come in half fuddled?
1706. E. Baynard, Cold Baths, II. (1709), 362. I made my Man give him a Cup of Ale … under a Pint, yet it almost fuddled him.
1771. Smollett, Humph. Cl. (1815), 233. After all the other females were fuddled with dram-drinking.
1809. W. Irving, Knickerb. (1861), 241. The colony of Maryland, or Merry-land, as it was anciently called, because that the inhabitants, not having the fear of the Lord before their eyes, were notoriously prone to get fuddled and make merry with mint julep and apple toddy.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., l. Bob Sawyer and Ben Allen, both slightly fuddled.
1890. Spectator, 27 Dec., 938/1. It [hypnotism] fuddles the will, in fact, but does not destroy it.
absol. 1725. Bradley, Fam. Dict., s.v. Strawberry, The Wine made of them will Fuddle.
1826. J. Wilson, Noct. Ambr., Wks. 1855, I. 140. The toddy having lost a’ taste, and a’ power o’ fuddlin, except mere stupefication o’ the head.
b. To fuddle one’s cap or nose: to get drunk.
1663. Cowley, Cutter of Coleman St., II. ii. We’ll fuddle our Noses together.
1719. D’Urfey, Pills (1872), IV. 106. If their Caps be fuddled with Ipse.
1724. in Ramsay, Tea-t. Misc. (1729), 15.
| Wine will make us red as roses, | |
| And our sorrows quite forget: | |
| Come, let us fuddle all our noses, | |
| Drink ourselves quite out of debt. |
c. 1793. Spirit Pub. Jrnls. (1799), I. 9. No Persian of old, till he fuddled his nose, Any measure in Senate was wont to propose.
c. transf. (See quots.)
1825. Brockett, N. C. Words, Fuddle, to intoxicate fish.
1835. ‘Stephen Oliver’ (W. A. Chatto), Rambles in Northumb., ii. 83. Resort to the more destructive practice of what they call fuddling the fish, by liming the water, or throwing into the pools a preparation of Coculus Indicus.
3. transf. and fig. To stupefy, muddle, confuse (also † with up). Formerly also of delight, etc.: To ‘intoxicate.’ (In quots. 1617, 1678 perh. = FUBBLE.)
1617. trans. De Dominis on Rom. xiii. 12. Nor would they suffer themselues to be any longer deceiued, and fuddled up in that darke cloud, and night of infolded faith.
1678. Cudworth, Intell. Syst., I. iii. 157. Nature is … Reason Immersed and Plunged into Matter, and as it were Fuddled in it, and Confounded with it.
1694. Crowne, Married Beau, V. Dram. Wks. 1874, IV. 325.
| Now she will fuddle me with every kiss; | |
| For I shall taste the quintessence of bliss. |
1745. Lady S. Cowper, Lett. to Mrs. Dewes, 5 June, in Mrs. Delany’s Life & Corr. (1861), II. 356. He was quite fuddled with joy.
1803. Edin. Rev., II. 398. He is fuddled with animal spirits.
1854. H. Rogers, Ess. (1860), II. 6. To impair and fuddle the intellect.
4. Comb.: † fuddle cap [see 2 b], a tippler, sot.
1666. trans. Horace’s Odes, I. i. The Fuddlecap whose God’s the Vyne.
1708. Motteux, Rabelais, V. vi. (1737), 21. Here’s to thee, old Fuddlecap.
