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Meddle vs Impertinent - What's the difference?

meddle | impertinent |

As a verb meddle

is (obsolete) to mix (something) with some other substance; to commingle, combine, blend.

As an adjective impertinent is

insolent, ill-mannered.

As a noun impertinent is

an impertinent individual.

meddle

English

Verb

(meddl)
  • (obsolete) To mix (something) with some other substance; to commingle, combine, blend.
  • *1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , II.i:
  • *:he cut a locke of all their heare, / Which medling with their bloud and earth, he threw / Into the graue.
  • *:
  • *:But after god came to Adam and bad hym knowe his wyf flesshly as nature requyred / Soo lay Adam with his wyf vnder the same tree / and anone the tree whiche was whyte and ful grene as ony grasse and alle that came oute of hit / and in the same tyme that they medled to gyders there was Abel begoten / thus was the tree longe of grene colour
  • *, II.5.1.v:
  • *:Take a ram's head that never meddled with an ewe, cut off at a blow, and the horns only taken away, boil it well, skin and wool together.
  • (senseid)To interfere (in) or (with); to concern oneself with unduly.
  • *Bible, 2 Kings xiv.10:
  • *:Why shouldst thou meddle to thy hurt?
  • *John Locke
  • *:The civil lawyershave meddled in a matter that belongs not to them.
  • (obsolete) To interest or engage oneself; to have to do (with), in a good sense.
  • *Tyndale
  • *:Study to be quiet, and to meddle with your own business.
  • :(Barrow)

    • Derived terms

    * meddlement * meddlesome * meddler

    Anagrams

    *

    impertinent

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • insolent, ill-mannered
  • * Tillotson
    • things that are impertinent to us
  • * Jeremy Taylor
    • How impertinent that grief was which served no end!
  • irrelevant (opposite of pertinent)

    • Usage notes

    Although, historically, definition 2 was the original (derived from the French below) usage; meaning gradually changed to definition 1. More recently general usage has come to, once again, incorporate definition 2. As many older speakers will consider definition 2 incorrect, avoiding the word altogether may be advisable. The construction "not pertinent" is one possible alternative.

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An impertinent individual.
  • * (Maria Edgeworth)
    • comfortably recessed from curious impertinents
    ----