spuddle

Etymology

Possibly from the Middle English term for a short knife, by extension, leading to the shallow plow, and from there to other more metaphoric meanings. Related to spud.

noun

  1. A mess or confusion.“There you go again, making spuddle of whatever I say.”
  2. An argument or dispute.“They had a right spuddle together — poor maid was crying, like, and then ' e made off.”
  3. A patch of wet mud or similar substance, more viscous than a puddle.“'Twuz tit fer tat sure, in a spuddle uv mud , And everything plastered all over with blood.”
  4. A process combining spraying and puddling.“A steady stream rather than a mist may be projected onto the wafer, or dispense may occur without rotation to form a “puddle." There is also a combination puddle and spray technique called “spuddle” developing.”

verb

  1. To loosen and dig up stubble and weeds left after a harvest with a broadshare or similar device.“Do you shim those stubbles before ploughing? Answer. No; but I spuddle them, to make the ground as clean as possible. Spuddling is performed with the plough, and is of the nature of shiming.”
  2. To shallowly dig or stir up in an unsystematic manner.“Instead of an "occasional gardener" to trim up the walks, and to hoe, your wife will be as happy as a queen, and your daughters as princesses, to spuddle about now and then, and have little flower gardens, and herb beds.”
  3. To make a lot of fuss about trivial things, as if they were important“During all the years that I spuddled around in a porcelain bath tub in a city I was given to regarding the farmer somewhat as the caricaturist, who wears his spring overcoat all winter and sells jokes for 10 cents each to the newspapers, painted him.”
  4. To work ineffectively; to work hard but achieve nothing“In what glooın are you all left to spuddle out your way through the road of life?”