meddle
Meaning
To meddle is to involve yourself in someone else’s business without the right or invitation—usually in a way others find annoying or improper.
Meanings of “meddle”
To take an interest in what is not your concern; to interfere without right or propriety.123
- Tone
- Usually disapproving; everyday spoken and written English.
- Where you’ll see it
- Merriam-Webster defines meddle as interesting yourself in what is not your concern. Cambridge marks the verb disapproving and stresses trying to change or influence things that are not your responsibility, especially by criticizing in a damaging or annoying way. Oxford Learner’s gives the same idea with the synonym interfere: involve yourself in something that should not really involve you. Common patterns are meddle in (affairs, politics) and meddle with (things you do not understand).
Examples
- Please stop meddling in your sister’s marriage, even if you mean well.
- My sister’s always meddling in other people’s affairs.
- He had no right to meddle in her affairs.
Examples are written for this site to show typical use. They are not quotes.
To touch or handle something carelessly, especially when it is not yours or you do not know how to use it.34
- Tone
- Disapproving; informal warning tone.
- Where you’ll see it
- Oxford Learner’s lists a second intransitive sense: meddle with something by touching it when you should not. Dictionary.com’s British gloss similarly covers interfering officiously, often with with. This sense is about fiddling, not only gossiping about people.
Examples
- Somebody had been meddling with her computer.
- Don’t meddle with the wiring if you are not trained.
- Kids kept meddling with the display until a guard stepped in.
Usage notes
- Meddle vs interfere: dictionaries treat them as close. Meddle is almost always personal and disapproving (busybodying). Interfere can mean the same unwanted involvement, but Cambridge and Merriam-Webster also use interfere with for spoiling or blocking a process (noise interfered with my concentration)—a sense meddle does not usually carry.
- Prefer meddle in for people’s business and meddle with for objects or systems you should leave alone.
- This page covers the English verb, not album or brand names that reuse the word.
Origin
Merriam-Webster and Oxford Learner’s trace meddle to Middle English medlen, from Anglo-French mesler/medler ‘mix,’ ultimately from Latin miscēre ‘to mix.’ Merriam-Webster dates the English verb to the 14th century.13
Sources
- meddle — Merriam-Webster (opens in a new tab)
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/meddle
- meddle — Cambridge Dictionary (opens in a new tab)
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/meddle
- meddle — Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries (opens in a new tab)
https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/meddle
- meddle — Dictionary.com (opens in a new tab)
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/meddle