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Definition of riddle :
1. A board having a row of pins, set zigzag, between which wire is drawn to straighten it.
2. 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.
3. Something proposed to be solved by guessing or conjecture; a puzzling question; an ambiguous proposition; an enigma; hence, anything ambiguous or puzzling.
4. To explain; to solve; to unriddle.
5. To perforate so as to make like a riddle; to make many holes in; as, a house riddled with shot.
6. To separate, as grain from the chaff, with a riddle; to pass through a riddle; as, riddle wheat; to riddle coal or gravel.
7. To speak ambiguously or enigmatically.
Synonyms:
infiltrate, brain-teaser, pervade, bottom, intricacy, fall into place, permeate, perplexity, get through, clarity, filter, imbue, get across, circularize, complexity, pass around, fan out, percolate, complication, propagate, come home, click, screen, fathom, spread out, circulate, strait, sieve, plight, circularise, shield, confusion, broadcast, question, diffuse, disperse, distribute, secret, bewilderment, screen out, test, penetrate, disseminate, spread, charade, puzzler, dawn, perforate, hue, entanglement, solution, paradox, show, distraction, soak, interpenetrate, dilemma, quandary, answer, sort, block out, closed book, sink in, doubt, embarrassment, simplicity, predicament
secret (part of speech: noun)
cryptogram, problem, brainteaser, enigma, labyrinth, code, puzzle, conundrum, poser, maze, mystery, cipher
Usage examples:
- What was the riddle of him? - "Lord Ormont and his Aminta, v4", George Meredith Edition: 10 Language: English.
- More to give myself time than for any other reason I called to Miss Hope, who had just emerged from the sacred enclosure with Stephen, and put the riddle to her, speaking very slowly and clearly, so that she might understand me. - "Allan and the Holy Flower", H. Rider Haggard.
- Old Sweetser is a riddle I hope to do justice to at some future time, but can't begin on now. - "Notes of a Son and Brother", Henry James.