puddle

Meanings

Noun

• A small, often temporary, pool of water, usually on a path or road.
• Stagnant or polluted water.
• A homogeneous mixture of clay, water, and sometimes grit, used to line a canal or pond to make it watertight.
• The ripple left by the withdrawal of an oar from the water.

Verb

• To form a puddle.
• To play or splash in a puddle.
• Of butterflies, to congregate on a puddle or moist substance to pick up nutrients.
• To process iron, gold, etc., by means of puddling.
• To line a canal with puddle (clay).
• To collect ideas, especially abstract concepts, into rough subtopics or categories, as in study, research or conversation.
• To make (clay, loam, etc.) dense or close, by working it when wet, so as to render impervious to water.
• To make foul or muddy; to pollute with dirt; to mix dirt with (water).

Origin

• From Middle English podel, diminutive of Old English pudd, from Proto-Germanic *puddaz (compare Low German Pudel ("puddle"), Middle High German podel, Hunsrik Puttel, dialectal German Pfudel, German pudeln ("to splash about")), ultimately imitative.