verb (American).—1. To fondle; bill and coo; indulge in endearments.—See CANOODLING. [There are two suggested derivations—(1) from CANNIE in the sense of gentle, and (2) that the primary signification may have been ‘to act as a noodle,’ i.e., to play the fool.] For synonyms, see FIRKYTOODLE.
1864. G. A. SALA, Temple Bar, Dec., p. 40. He is an adept in that branch of persuasive dialectics known as conoodling. He will CONOODLE the ladies (bless their dear hearts! and how sharp they think themselves at making a bargain!) into the acquisition of whole packages of gimcrack merchandise.
1879. Punch, March 15, p. 117, col. 2. ‘Our Representative Man.’ Then he and the matchless one struggle, snuggle, and generally CONOODLE together rapturously. Then the matchless Ecstacy being the wife, not of the Chevalier, but of Charles VI., King of France, she, this impulsive, loving, beautiful, hugging, conoodling young Ecstacy, has the cool impudence to declare that theirs is a ‘guiltless love.’
2. (Oxford University).—To paddle or propel a canoe.
1879. E. H. MARSHALL, in Notes and Queries, 5 S., xi., 375. When I was an undergraduate at Oxford, to CANOODLE was the slang expression for paddling one’s own canoe on the bosom of the Cherwell or the Isis.
3. (American theatrical).—To share profits.
18[?]. Green Room Jokes. ‘Pray, good sir, what is a CANOODLER?’ ‘Tell you, mum, queer business, mum, but prosperous, money—heaps of it, mum, for you and me’—and he winked significantly, jerked up a chair, and squatted in it, all in a breath…. Undeterred, he rattled on: ‘I’m an original thinker, mum. Invent business opportunities. Share ’m with actors, and then we CANOODLE—divvy the profits. Me and Sheridan made a big thing on the Japanese advertising screen in “School for Scandal!” Big thing.’
4. (common).—To coax.
