addlepated

comparative more addlepated · superlative most addlepated · alternative addle-pated

1. Addled; confused; stupid; flustered.

   Let euery idle addle-pated gull With stinking sweet Tobacco stuffe his skull.

   1630, John Taylor, “Plutoes Proclamation concerning his Infernall pleasure for the Propagation of Tobacco”, in All the Workes of John Taylor the Water-Poet, London: James Boler, page 252

   4 more examples

   Hallo father, here’s Pecksniff! He gets more addle-pated every day he lives, I do believe,’ muttered Jonas, shaking his honoured parent roundly.

   1842 December – 1844 July, Charles Dickens, The Life and Adventures of Martin Chuzzlewit, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published 1844, →OCLC

   “[…] I don’t really know if I’m doing right—it may make you more addle-pated than ever—but you can ask Diana to come over and spend the afternoon with you and have tea here.”

   1908 June, L[ucy] M[aud] Montgomery, chapter 16, in Anne of Green Gables, Boston, Mass.: L[ouis] C[oues] Page & Company, published August 1909, →OCLC, page 169

   “Do you actually expect me to wander the world as if I were an addlepated bald woman escaped from the circus?” she would say.

   1989, John Irving, chapter 9, in A Prayer for Owen Meany, New York: William Morrow, page 456

   His best-known creations are the addlepated, cheese-loving inventor Wallace, and Gromit, his patient, intelligent dog.

   2018 February 14, Charles Solomon, “Nick Park is back in the stop-motion animation game with 'Early Man'”, in LA Times