Both Uses of
addle
in
Don Quixote
- To which Sancho made answer, "By the living God, Sir Knight of the Rueful Countenance, I cannot endure or bear with patience some of the things that your worship says; and from them I begin to suspect that all you tell me about chivalry, and winning kingdoms and empires, and giving islands, and bestowing other rewards and dignities after the custom of knights-errant, must be all made up of wind and lies, and all pigments or figments, or whatever we may call them; for what would anyone think that heard your worship calling a barber's basin Mambrino's helmet without ever seeing the mistake all this time, but that one who says and maintains such things must have his brains addled?†
Chpt 1.25-26addled = mixed up or confused
- "I know nothing about that," said Sancho; "all I know is it will be my bad luck that through not finding this head my county will melt away like salt in water;"—for Sancho awake was worse than his master asleep, so much had his master's promises addled his wits.†
Chpt 1.35-36 *
Definitions:
-
(1)
(addle) mix up or confuse
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) Much more rarely, addled can refer to an egg whose embryo is dead.