noodle
Meanings
- A string or flat strip of pasta or other dough, usually cooked (at least initially) by boiling, and served in soup or in a dry form mixed with a sauce and other ingredients.
- An object which is long and thin like a noodle (sense 1).
- Ellipsis of pool noodle (“a long, slender tube or rod, extruded from buoyant foam and usually brightly coloured, used as an exercise tool or toy in swimming pools”).
- A dumpling cooked by boiling and served in soup; a knaidel or knödel.
- The penis.
- A long and slender dragon, usually an eastern dragon.
- A borzoi dog.
- A person with poor judgment; a fool.
- The brain; the head.
- To fool or trick (someone).
- To engage in frivolous behavior; to fool around or waste time.
- To hum or sing (a tune) at a low pitch or volume.
- To play (a musical instrument or passage of music) or to sing (a passage of music) in an improvisatory or lighthearted manner; also, to play (a series of ornamental notes) on an instrument.
- To ponder or think about (something).
- To play a musical instrument or to sing in an improvisatory or lighthearted manner; also, to play a series of ornamental notes on an instrument.
- To ponder or think, especially in an unproductive or unsystematic manner; to muse.
- To attempt in an informal or uncertain manner; to fiddle.
- Often followed by about or around: to mess around, to play.
- An improvised passage of music played on an instrument; also, a series of ornamental notes played on an instrument; a trill.
- To search (mullock (“mining or ore processing waste”)) for opals.
- To obtain (an opal) by searching through mullock.
- To clear extraneous material from (an opal).
- To search mullock for opals; to fossick.
- To catch (fish (usually very large catfish), turtles, or other aquatic animals) with the hands; also, to catch (fish) using a gaff or fishing spear; to gaff.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
Borrowed from Dutch noedel (“noodle”), or from its etymon German Nudel (“piece of pasta, noodle”); further etymology uncertain, probably a variant of Knödel (“dumpling”), from Middle High German knödel (“dumpling; small knot”), and then either: * from knode, knote (“knot”) (from Old High German knodo, knoto (“knot”), perhaps ultimately related to Proto-West Germanic *knappō (“knob; boy”)) + -el (diminutive suffix); or * from Ladin menùdli (“small dough dumpling in soup”), probably from Latin minutulus (“very small, tiny”) (in the sense of food chopped into small pieces), a diminutive of minūtus (“diminished; having been diminished”), the perfect passive participle of minuō (“to make smaller, diminish, lessen, reduce”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *mey- (“little, small”). Cognates * French nouille, noudle, nudeln * Swedish nudel