meddle and make

present singular third person meddles and makes · participle present meddling and making · participle past meddled and made · past meddled and made · alternative meddle nor make · alternative meddle or make

1. obsoleteTo intrude oneself into another person's concerns.First known use 16th to 19th c.

   […] for such kind of men, the less you meddle or make with them, why the more is for your honesty.

   1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iii]

   4 more examples

   For it is accounted a disgrace for the man to meddle or make with those affairs, that properly do belong unto the Woman.

   1681, Robert Knox, An Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon, London: Richard Chiswell, Part III, Chapter 7, p. 91

   Hold your foolish Tongue, Mr. Metal, said she, and get you to-bed; have’nt I plague enough with this audacious Slut, do you think, without your meddling and making?

   1756, anonymous author, Emily; or, The History of a Natural Daughter, London: F. Noble & J. Noble, Volume I, Book III, p. 205

   She is the most unquiet person I know; cannot be still—meddles and makes about every thing and every body.

   1840, Ellen Pickering, chapter 5, in The Quiet Husband, volume I, London: T.&.W. Boone, page 162

   “Nay, I must not meddle or make in this business,” said the Shaker. “You did meddle and make in it once,” retorted Ford, unresentfully but inflexibly […]

   1880, William Dean Howells, chapter 27, in The Undiscovered Country, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, page 399