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MEDDLE
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I. (verb)
Verb forms
Present simple: I / you / we / they meddle ... he / she / it meddles
Past simple: meddled
Past participle: meddled
-ing form: meddling
Sense 1
Meaning:
Intrude in other people's affairs or business; interfere unwantedly
Example:
Don't meddle in my affairs!
Synonyms:
meddle; tamper
Classified under:
Verbs of political and social activities and events
Hypernyms (to "meddle" is one way to...):
interfere; interpose; intervene; step in (get involved, so as to alter or hinder an action, or through force or threat of force)
Sentence frames:
Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP
Derivation:
meddler (an officious annoying person who interferes with others)
meddling (the act of altering something secretly or improperly)
Context examples:
“I will go when I have had my say. Don’t you dare to meddle with my affairs. I know that Miss Stoner has been here. I traced her! I am a dangerous man to fall foul of! See here.”
(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The fourth, “Who has been meddling with my spoon?”
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
“All right, Watson, I don’t intend to meddle.”
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
There is no one to meddle, sir.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
And you're the last above board of that same meddling crew; and you have the Davy Jones's insolence to up and stand for cap'n over me—you, that sank the lot of us!
(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
Do away with war, if the cursed thing can by any wit of man be avoided, but until you see your way to that, have a care in meddling with those primitive qualities to which at any moment you may have to appeal for your own protection.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Oh! said the man, you need not fear the gallows; for I will only teach you to steal what will be fair game: I meddle with nothing but what no one else can get or care anything about, and where no one can find you out.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
It gave me a kind of savage joy when I thought how Sarah would feel when she had such signs as these of what her meddling had brought about.
(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
He is a harsh man; at once pompous and meddling; he cut off our hair; and for economy's sake bought us bad needles and thread, with which we could hardly sew.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
