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Noodle vs Noodly - What's the difference?

noodle | noodly |

As a noun noodle

is a string or strip of pasta.

As a verb noodle

is to fish (usually for very large catfish) without any equipment other than the fisherman's own body.

As an adjective noodly is

of or pertaining to noodles.

noodle

English

Noun

(en noun) (wikipedia noodle)
  • (usually in plural) A string or strip of pasta.
    • She slurped a long noodle up out of her soup.
  • (colloquial, dated) A person with poor judgement; a fool.
  • * Sydney Smith
    • the chuckling grin of noodles
  • * Charles Dickens, Hard Times
    • If that portrait could speak, sir — but it has the advantage over the original of not possessing the power of committing itself and disgusting others, — it would testify, that a long period has elapsed since I first habitually addressed it as the picture of a noodle .
  • (colloquial) The brain, the head.
  • (colloquial) A pool noodle.

    • Quotations

    (English Citations of "noodle")

    Derived terms

    * egg noodle * noodle bar * noodlehead * pool noodle

    See also

    * pasta *

    Verb

    (Noodling)
  • (fishing) To fish (usually for very large catfish) without any equipment other than the fisherman's own body
    • Fred had several lacerations on his hands from noodling for flathead in the river.
  • To think or ponder.
    • He noodled over the problem for a day or two before making a decision.
    "Noodle that thought around for a while" said Dr. Johnson to his Biblical Interpretations class
  • To fiddle, play with, or mess around.
    • If the machine is really broken, noodling with the knobs is not going to fix it.
  • To improvise music.
    • He has been noodling with that trumpet all afternoon, and every bit of it sounds awful.
  • (Australia) To fossick, especially for opals.
  • * 1989 , Association for Industrial Archaeology, Industrial archaeology review , Volume 12,
    • On the Olympic Field the tour-group is permitted to ‘noodle ’ (hunt for opals) on the waste or mullock heaps ...
  • * 1994 , RonMoon, Outback Australia: a Lonely Planet Australia guide ,
    • In Coober Pedy, noodling' for opals is generally discouraged, although a few tourist spots, such as the Old Timers Mine, have ' noodle pits open to the public.
  • * 2006 , Marele Day, Susan Bradley Smith, Fay Knight (editors), Making Waves: 10 Years of the Byron Bay Writers Festival ,
    • We learn how Lennon used to noodle (fossick) for opal as a kid, how camels were for a long time the only form of transportation, and where the name 'Coober Pedy' came from.

    Derived terms

    * noodler

    References

    noodly

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • of or pertaining to noodles
  • (music) loopy, containg intertwined loops
  • * {{quote-news, year=1998, date=January 16, author=John Corbett, title=Cradle of Electronica, work=Chicago Reader citation
    • , passage=He felt the pangs intensifying, as if the noodly , repetitive sounds were some lost language he'd known but forgotten, a dialect discarded or repressed. }}
  • * {{quote-news, year=2002, date=May 17, author=Peter Margasak, title=Cornershop, work=Chicago Reader citation
    • , passage=Both of those albums contained lots of what's charitably called filler--in the form of noodly hip-hop-inspired loops that never went anywhere--and it took the band five years to release the new Handcream for a Generation (Wiija/Beggars Banquet). }}
  • floppy, droopy
  • * {{quote-news, year=2006, date=May 12, author=Liz Armstrong, Heather Kenny, title=Big Imagination, work=Chicago Reader citation
    • , passage=A lot of her clothes move strangely: one dress has an exaggerated, uneven bustle, upon which is layered a long skirt made of elastic, resulting in a motion that Glaum-Lathbury describes as "wiggly and noodly ." }}