croodle

present singular third person croodles · participle present croodling · participle past croodled · past croodled

1. UKdialectalobsoleteTo cower or cuddle together, as from fear or cold; to lie close and snug together, as pigs in straw.

   Far ben thy dark green plantin's shade The cushat croodles am'rously

   a. 1810, Robert Tannahill, The Wood O' Craigie Lea

   2 more examples

   Oh! that I had wings-not as a dove , to fly home to its nest and croodle there

   1858 January, Charles Kingsley, “My Winter-Garden”, in Frasers Magazine

   Mrs. Dootson bridged the other half, and, croodling down to Meg's height, she somewhat forced the friendship

   1898, William Edwards Tirebuck, Meg of the Scarlet Fool

2. UKdialectalobsoleteTo fawn or coax.

   Synonyms: butter up, cajole, inveigle, sweet-talk, wheedle, blandander, blandish, butter up

present singular third person croodles · participle present croodling · participle past croodled · past croodled

1. dialectalTo make a cooing sound.

   Do pigeons croodle, or only doves?

   2017, Thomas Rohrer, Worms Drowning in the Rain

   1 more example

   Too dark to see well, but judge from movements of old bird's head and croodling noise.

   1899, Zoologist

plural croodles

1. A bird's coo, especially that of a dove.

   [A] third-storey apartment under the eaves loud with the croodles and canoodling of amorous pigeons.

   1997, Aidan Higgins, Flotsam and Jetsam, page 265

   1 more example

   [A]nd no sound falls on my ears, except the distant roar of a passing train, the song of linnets, and croodle of turtle-dove and cushat.

   1888, Gordon Stables, In Touch with Nature: Tales and Sketches from the Life, page 46